


The Probability of Falling

by spqr_queen



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Animagus, Deathly Hallows, F/M, Marauders, Order of the Pheonix, Slow Burn, Triwizard Tournament, animagus original character, goblet of fire - Freeform, half blood prince
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-28
Updated: 2021-01-10
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:01:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 14
Words: 26,985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26701087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spqr_queen/pseuds/spqr_queen
Summary: Harry Potter had never met a girl like Hollis Walsh before: brilliant, protective and totally addicted to caffeine. He never meant to meet her actually, even though the two of them had been in the same house at Hogwarts for almost four years they had both stayed in their respective social circles.Hollis knows better than to hang around a boy who just attracted trouble. Harry knows better than to hang around the only person in school who was brave enough to act on her personal vendetta against the Slytherins.It's only when Harry see's Hollis turn into a dragon, and Hollis catches him out in the Forbidden Forest nights before the First Task of the Triwizard Tournament that the two share more than a few words. From there it's only a matter of time before they begin to help (read: Harry blackmails her) each other and a friendship forms.Goblet of Fire — post-Deathly Hallows           *slowish burn*
Relationships: Harry Potter/Original Female Character(s)
Comments: 10
Kudos: 51





	1. Much Ado About Dragons

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome here! I'm so excited for everyone to finally read this, currently this fic is available on Wattpad, but since I've started to hate that platform I decided to head over here! I really hope you're as excited to read this as I am to continue writing and posting it! Please let me know what you think in the comments! See you in the next chapter!

Harry was not pleased with Hagrid at the moment. If the giant of a man had been leading him through the forest just the two of them Harry would probably not have been so annoyed. However, it was midnight, Harry was tired, he was forced to wear his invisibility cloak which was beginning to be too small for him, and he was silently third wheeling on a date between Hagrid and _Madam Maxime_ of all people. 

Harry was about to turn around and walk back to the castle, deciding that Hagrid would just have to explain to him in the morning what he wanted to show him. But then — when they had walked so far around the perimeter of the forest that the castle and the lake were out of sight — Harry heard something. Men were shouting up ahead . . . then came a deafening, earsplitting roar. . . 

Hagrid led Madam Maxime around a clump of trees and came to a halt. Harry hurried up alongside them — for a split second, he thought he was seeing bonfires, and men darting around them — and then his mouth fell open. 

Dragons. 

Five fully grown, enormous, vicious-looking dragons were rearing onto their hind legs inside an enclosure fenced with thick planks of wood, roaring and snorting — torrents of fire were shooting into the dark sky from their open, fanged mouths, fifty feet above the ground on their outstretched necks. 

Four of them were strapped down to the ground there was a silvery-blue one with long, pointed horns, snapping and snarling at the wizards on the ground; a smooth-scaled green one, which was writhing and stamping with all its might; a red one with an odd fringe of fine gold spikes around its face, which was shooting mushroom-shaped fire clouds into the air; and a gigantic black one, more lizard-like than the others, which was nearest to them. 

It was the fifth dragon that caught Harry’s eye; it flying above the other dragons free and unchained. Every couple moments a burst of green flames would fly out of its mouth striking one of the other dragons in the head and forcing it down closer to the wizards below that were trying to keep the dragons in check. Its scales were a midnight blue color, and its wings were larger than the smallest of the other dragons. Which was to say that it a very large dragon indeed. 

At least thirty wizards, seven or eight to the four dragons that were kept shackled to the ground, attempting to control them, pulling on the chains connected to heavy leather straps around their necks and legs. Mesmerized, Harry looked up, high above him, and saw the eyes of the black dragon, with vertical pupils like a cat’s, bulging with either fear or rage, he couldn’t tell which. . . It was making a horrible noise, a yowling, screeching scream. . . 

“Keep back there, Hagrid!” yelled a wizard near the fence, straining on the chain he was holding. “They can shoot fire at a range of twenty feet, you know! I’ve seen this Horntail do forty!” 

“Is’n’ it beautiful?” said Hagrid softly. 

“It’s no good!” yelled another wizard. “Stunning Spells, on the count of three!” Harry saw each of the dragon keepers pull out his wand. 

“Stupefy!” they shouted in unison, and the Stunning Spells shot into the darkness like fiery rockets, bursting in showers of stars on the dragons’ scaly hides — 

Harry watched the dragon nearest to them teeter dangerously on its back legs; its jaws stretched wide in a silent howl; its nostrils were suddenly devoid of flame, though still smoking — then, very slowly, it fell. Several tons of sinewy, scaly-black dragon hit the ground with a thud that Harry could have sworn made the trees behind him quake. 

The dragon keepers lowered their wands and walked forward to their fallen charges, each of which was the size of a small hill. They hurried to tighten the chains and fasten them securely to iron pegs, which they forced deep into the ground with their wands. 

“Wan’ a closer look?” Hagrid asked Madam Maxime excitedly. 

The pair of them moved right up to the fence, and Harry followed. The wizard who had warned Hagrid not to come any closer turned, and Harry realized who it was: Charlie Weasley. 

“All right, Hagrid?” he panted, coming over to talk. “They should be okay now — we put them out with a Sleeping Draft on the way here, thought it might be better for them to wake up in the dark and the quiet — but, like you saw, they weren’t happy, not happy at all —” 

The largest of the dragons which had been flying high above until that moment began to let itself come closer down to the ground. As it did Harry could have sworn that the dragon was getting smaller rather than larger like he assumed it come closer to him like this would have resulted in. It wasn’t until the dragon put down beside Charlie Weasley, who barely gave it a look, that Harry realized that it in fact had shrunk. Now the dragon was no larger than the size of a large dog, barely bigger than Fang, though Harry didn’t doubt that this dragon would not hesitate to sink its rather large teeth into anything that gave it issues quite unlike the rather subdued dog that belonged to Hagrid. 

“Wotcher, Hollis.” Hagrid greeted the dragon nodding to the creature that was now sitting peacefully on the ground. 

Harry was confused at Hagrid’s behavior treating the dragon like a of a pet, rather than a rather dangerous wild animal. 

“I think we’re good for the night if you would like to head back to school, Hollis.” Charlie told the dragon, and Harry furrowed his brow only to gasp in shock when the blue dragon turned into a girl. Not just any girl, Hollis Walsh, his classmate and fellow Gryffindor. Harry recognized the girl from class, and from being one of the few females at the school that was kind of Hermione but he had never given her a second thought. She was just Hollis, the girl that spent most of the day nursing a thermos of hot something or other, and was usually fighting one of the Slytherin’s in Malfoys crew. 

Yet, here she was not only in the Forbidden Forest at night, but also — Realization hit Harry like a brick wall. Hollis was a dragon, or rather Hollis was an Animagus. Like Sirius — like his father. And she was definitely much younger than any of the Marauders when they first transformed. 

“You sure? I don’t mind, I mean, Dumbledore told all the teachers to let me leave my classes to get as much coffee as I want so I really don’t mind staying up late tonight.” 

“No, you should go to bed. We’ll need you again tomorrow, better have you rested up then exhausted.” 

“If you’re sure.” 

“I’m sure, thanks for your help tonight, Hollis.” 

“No problem. Have a nice... _date_ , Hagrid.” Hollis jumped the pen and passed by Hagrid and Madam Maxime who were both blushing like mad. 

Hollis brushed pass them and headed out of the woods straight towards her invisible classmate. Harry was unsure of what to do, if he moved now Hollis might hear him, but if he didn’t move the Gryffindor was going to slam right into him. Harry froze, praying to whatever god was out there laughing at him that she would swerve at the last moment. 

Hollis was about to pass Harry when she stopped. Harry held his breath, and tried to become a stone statue. 

“You alright Hollis?” Charlie called after the girl. 

“All good, Weasley, just heard a bird call.” 

“Go to bed, Hollis!” Charlie yelled, and then paused. “Gosh, I sound like my mum don’t I, Hagrid?” The two began to chat again, Madam Maxime watching the dragons fascinated at the sleeping creatures. Harry was beginning to feel a burn in his lungs from holding his breath. 

Hollis began to move again, and just as she swept past Harry her hand came under his cloak and wrapped around his wrist. Harry squeaked in shock and Hollis shot a nasty glance at him. 

“How...?” He began but she shushed him. 

“Don’t speak until I tell you too.” 

“O-okay.” 

“What did I just say?” Hollis walked quickly down the same path that Hagrid had taken mere minutes before. The two walked in silence, Harry was tempted to pull his cloak off of himself, but doubted that Hollis would be pleased with him if she did. “Hide.” She hissed, and Harry ducked behind a tree. Watching in amazement as Hollis instantaneously transformed into a dragon the size of a bird. He couldn’t barely believe his eyes as he watched her delicately fly above his head. 

“Who’s there?” Harry recognized the silhouette of the man in front of him, specifically the goatee . . . it wasKarkaroff. “Who’s there?” said Karkaroff again, very suspiciously, looking around in the darkness. 

Harry remained still and silent, focusing on Hollis who had decided to land on top of his head, he was surprised by how the light she was, not that he thought Hollis would be heavy it was just that she was a dragon and — Harry was broken from his train of thought by Hollis jumping off of his head and transforming back into her human form mid-air, landing on her feet. To be honest the moved looked rehearsed to him. 

They continued walking until they reached Gryffindor tower, neither of them spoke the entire way. 

“Hollis.” Harry tore his cloak off of himself the second they were in front of the Fat Lady, who shrieked and started lecturing Harry about appearing suddenly in front of people who weren’t prepared. The girl ignored him, and instead gave the Fat Lady the password and entered into the common room. “Hollis, stop —” 

“Meet me in the kitchen at 6 o’clock tomorrow morning. Don’t be late.” 

“Hollis, I don’t know where —” 

“Outside the Hufflepuff common room, tickle the pear in the portrait of the fruit bowl until it giggles.” She hissed to him, before sprinting up the stairs to the girl’s dormitory. Harry knew from experience better than to try to follow him. Ron and Harry had spent the majority of Easter break last year sprinting up to the middle of the stairs and then sliding back down. Slowly, Harry sunk into one of the comfortable arm chairs in front of the fire and waited for Sirius to appear. 


	2. Morning Meetings

Hollis Walsh could barely keep her eyes open as she waited for Harry Potter to join her in the kitchen. She was exhausted, even though she had crashed in her bed the moment she got back to her dorm that didn’t excuse the fact that she had been up hours later than the normal the night before, or that she had been in her Animagus form for most of it, or the fact that she hadn’t been able to sleep soundly with dreams of Harry exposing her secrets to all of her classmates and them surrounding her and taunting her floated through her head — Hollis shuddered just from thinking about the dreams that were now replaying in her head. 

“Hollis?” Harry voice quite suddenly shot through the quiet bustle of the kitchen early in the morning, scaring her badly enough that she stood up and slammed her head against the pots that were hanging about the counter she had been consuming her third cup of coffee for the day. “Are you okay?” 

“I’m fine.” Hollis winced as she touched the sore spot on her forehead. 

“I think you’re bruising.” Harry said, glancing at Hollis’ forehead. 

“Typical.” The brunette rubbed her forehead angrily. Harry stood there awkwardly watching Hollis, unsure of what to do. “Sit.” Hollis ordered and Harry immediately obeyed. To be honest, he was scared of the girl’s temper, having watched as she decked Crabbe and Goyle multiple times for bullying her cousin. 

“So...” Harry stared at his hands awkwardly unsure of how to start this conversation. ”How long have you been an—” 

“Since birth.” 

“What?” 

“I’ve been an Animagus since birth.” 

“I didn’t know that was possible.” 

“Neither did my parents. They were even more confused when nothing of the sort happened to my younger brother.” Hollis laughed; she could picture her dad dramatically retelling the story of the first time she transformed in front of them. “Dumbledore, was the one that helped them keep my transformations in check until I was old enough to control them.” Harry stared in wonder at the girl. “He taught me how to control my magic before I came to Hogwarts actually.” 

“Dumbledore taught you magic?” 

“In a sense.” The pale girl put simply, her dark blue eyes shining, a small smile playing across her lips. “He figured if I was going to be able to transform into a dragon at will, I should know how to use a wand.” 

“Weird.” Harry remarked, and Hollis’ small smile vanished. “Not the dragon part, but the fact that you had a wand when you were too young to go to Hogwarts.” Hollis didn’t smile. “I’m sorry, I’m messing this conversation up. Can we start over?” 

Hollis do anything for a moment before suddenly speaking in a high pitch shriek: “Holy crap, are you Harry Potter, The Boy Who Lived?” Harry didn’t know what to do for a moment before catching on to the girl’s plot. 

“Yes, and are you — no, you couldn’t be? Hollis Walsh!? That girl that broke Goyle’s nose last week?” 

“Last week?” Hollis asked aghast. “I’ll have you know that I not only broke it last week, but I broke this week too.” 

“How?” Harry asked, laughing. “It’s 6 am on a Sunday! Walsh, what did you do?” 

“Do you really want to know?” Hollis replied, and Harry laughed harder, forgetting that it was 6 in the morning and that he barely knew the girl in front of him. Hollis seemed to remember right as Harry forgot. “I’m sorry, I forced us off topic.” 

“It’s alright.” 

“Oh my gosh!” 

“What?” Harry recoiled as Hollis shrieked for the second time that morning. 

“You don’t have any coffee.” 

“I don’t drink coffee.” 

“How are you staying awake? Link!” Hollis called, ignoring Harry’s words. A small house elf appeared in front of the two. “Could you get Harry a drink? And maybe some of those blueberry muffins?” She asked pointing to the stack of muffins that was slowly accruing across the kitchen. 

“Yes, of course, Miss Hollis. What would Mr. Potter like to drink?” 

“Um...” 

“They have every type of coffee that you could imagine!” 

“Uh...” 

“It’s like paradise here. Seriously, Harry, anything you could think of.” 

“Could I...” 

“Like they have the most amazing medium roast coffee with chocolate ground with the beans and —” 

“Could I get a mug of hot water?” Harry asked, and the little house elf ran into the crowd of house elves that were bustling around preparing breakfast for the hungry students that were beginning to wake up above them. 

“Hot water?” Hollis choked out the words like they were poison. “You want hot water?” 

“Um... I don’t...” Harry mumbled out the last few words. 

“You don’t what?” 

“I don’t drink coffee.” 

“What!” 

“I barely even drink tea, so I mean, I’m just really bad at being British.” Hollis sat there studying the boy in shock. “It’s rather bitter if you asked me.” 

“I didn’t.” The girl spat out. 

“I’m sorry, did I offend you?” 

“Yes.” Hollis sat there glaring at her mug. ”No.” 

“Oh.” 

“Just shocked me a little bit.” Hollis watched as Harry accepted a mug of steaming water from Link, thanking the house elf profusely. “Anyways, I wanted to speak to you about what you saw last night.” 

“I —” 

“Listen then speak.” Hollis took a swig of her coffee finishing off her mug. “I am helping keep the dragons in check for the Triwizard Tournament, as I’m sure you have already figured out. I can communicate with them —” 

“You can communicate with dragons?” Hollis didn’t bother glaring at him this time. “Sorry.” 

“Well as you just learnt I can communicate with the dragons, I work with the dragon keepers under Dumbledore’s orders. Obviously, you can’t tell anyone about me being animagus, not even Weasley or Granger.” 

“Obviously?” Harry asked, the already pale girl paled even further. 

“Look, if anyone knew about me being an Animagus, I would be the butt of every joke at this school. I would be a social outcast.” 

“No, you wouldn’t, people would think it’s cool.” 

“No, they wouldn’t. It would scare people, _I_ would scare people. Being a cat like McGonagall is one thing but a dragon? Are you kidding me, Potter? People would be terrified; my school experience would be wrecked.” 

“I beg to disagree.” 

“You don’t get to disagree; this is my life.” 

“And?” 

“And, what?” Hollis asked, her glare was back. 

Seriously, Harry thought, this girl only has two moods, happy and angry. 

“I want you to help me.” The words sprang out of Harry’s mouth before he could stop them. 

“What do you mean, Potter?” 

“You know dragons, help me with this task.” 

“I can’t do that.” 

“Why not?” 

“Conflict of interest?” 

“That doesn’t even make sense, Hollis.” 

“Potter...” 

“Look, all I want is some tips, maybe some help learning some spells. Is that too much ask?” 

Hollis’ glare intensified. “You should have been a Slytherin.” 

Harry’s eyes widened in surprise, but he covered up his shock quickly. “So...” 

“You can’t tell Hermione, or Ron.” 

“Don’t worry about, Ron.” Harry whispered darkly and Hollis frowned. 

“What happened to Ron?”

“Don’t worry about it, he’s just being a prat.” Harry glared at the mug of hot water that Link had set in front of him, gladly taking a muffin from the elf who was offering it to him. “Is it fun?”

“Is what fun?”

“Flying like that?” Harry asked. “Being a dragon?

“It’s the best feeling in the world.” A smile smiled played across her face lighting up her dark eyes up with life. “Total freedom.”

“Do you know what type of dragon you can become?”

“Dumbledore asked around, but no one knew of a dragon that could change its size, so I guess I’m unique.”

“Change your size?”

“I think it’s a camouflage thing for survival in the wild, but all it does for me is make it so much easier to get around the grounds at night. Just a little bit of willpower and I’m as a small as a sparrow or bigger than a Horntail.”

“Wicked.”

“It can be.” Link appeared beside Hollis, a pot of coffee in hand ready to refill her mug. “Thanks. So Potter, you want help?”

“Yes. I need it desperately, how on earth am I going to defeat a dragon.”

“I honestly don’t know.”

“Wow, this is off to a great start already.”

“I didn’t say I could help, you just demanded it from me.”

“Yeah, well. I need help, you’re here. What are friends for?”

“This doesn’t make us friends.” Hollis warned, the glare that Harry was becoming all too familiar with coming back. 

“Too late for that, I’ve already decided we are.” Harry impulsively reached across the table and took Hollis' coffee away from her to take a sip. Harry regretted it the moment he did it, the coffee tasted horrible and Hollis looked pissed. A growl that did not sound natural erupted from Hollis’ throat. Harry ran. There’s not graceful way to put it, the boy high tailed it out of that room. 

It was a very good thing that most of the students were asleep otherwise they would have been very confused to see Harry Potter sprinting around the school being chased by a dark blue dragon the size of a sparrow. 


	3. Too Nice For Your Own Good

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From here on out! I will updating every Friday afternoon! Please let me know what you think of this fic so far and make sure to subscribe or bookmark this book so you can come back! Have a great week!

When Harry finally had escaped the wrath of Hollis in the form of a mini dragon, he hurried off to find Hermione, locating her at the Gryffindor table in the Great Hall, where she was eating breakfast with Ginny. Feeling almost too queasy to eat, Harry waited until Hermione had swallowed her last spoonful of porridge, then dragged her out onto the grounds. 

There, he told her all about the dragons (leaving out everything about Hollis), and about everything Sirius had said, while they took another long walk around the lake. Alarmed as she was by Sirius’s warnings about Karkaroff, Hermione still thought that the dragons were the more pressing problem. 

“Let’s just try and keep you alive until Tuesday evening,” she said desperately, “and then we can worry about Karkaroff.” 

They walked three times around the lake, trying all the way to think of a simple spell that would subdue a dragon. Nothing whatsoever occurred to them, so they retired to the library instead. Here, Harry pulled down every book he could find on dragons, and both of them set to work searching through the large pile. 

“‘Talon-clipping by charms . . . treating scale-rot . . .’ this is no good, this is for nutters like Hagrid who want to keep them healthy. . . .” 

“‘Dragons are extremely difficult to slay, owing to the ancient magic that imbues their thick hides, which none but the most powerful spells can penetrate . . .’ But Sirius said a simple one would do it. . . .” 

“Who’s Sirius?” Hollis asked, appearing beside Harry. 

“N-no one.” Hermione stuttered, stunned when Hollis sat down beside the boy and leaned in so only Harry and Hermione can hear her. 

“That’s not suspicious at all.” The two exchanged a look, Hermione questioning Harry with her eyes why Hollis was here, Harry begging Hermione not to ask. “Anyways, all of these books are a load of rubbish. None of them will help you.” 

“And you would know that how?” Hermione asked, Harry smiled at the offended tone that Hermione had taken on, protective of her library. 

“Because I’ve read them all.” 

“You’ve read them all... I’m sorry but why are you here?” Hermione asked, before someone in the entrance of the library caught her eye. “Oh no, he’s back again, why can’t he read on his stupid ship?” said Hermione irritably as Viktor Krum slouched in, cast a surly look over at the pair of them, and settled himself in a distant corner with a pile of books. “Come on, Harry, we’ll go back to the common room . . . his fan club’ll be here in a moment, twittering away. . . .” And sure enough, as they left the library, a gang of girls tiptoed past them, one of them wearing a Bulgaria scarf tied around her waist. 

At some point on the way back to their common room Hollis disappeared into the fathoms of the school. Harry sighed as he realized that he probably wouldn’t see the brunette for the rest of the day. 

Harry barely slept that night. When he awoke on Monday morning, he seriously considered for the first time ever just running away from Hogwarts. But as he looked around the Great Hall at breakfast time, and thought about what leaving the castle would mean, he knew he couldn’t do it. It was the only place he had ever been happy . . . well, he supposed he must have been happy with his parents too, but he couldn’t remember that. 

Somehow, the knowledge that he would rather be here and facing a dragon than back on Privet Drive with Dudley was good to know; it made him feel slightly calmer. He finished his bacon with difficulty (his throat wasn’t working too well), and as he and Hermione got up, he saw Cedric Diggory leaving the Hufflepuff table. 

Cedric still didn’t know about the dragons . . . the only champion who didn’t, if Harry was right in thinking that Maxime and Karkaroff would have told Fleur and Krum. . . . 

“Hermione, I’ll see you in the greenhouses,” Harry said, coming to his decision as he watched Cedric leaving the Hall. “Go on, I’ll catch you up.” 

“Harry, you’ll be late, the bell’s about to ring —” 

“I’ll catch you up, okay?”

Hollis watched him curiously from across the hall from the Slytherin table, and her need to be on time was overpowered by her curiosity of why her fellow Gryffindor was chasing after the other Hogwarts Champion. 

“I’ll meet you at Herbology okay?” She told Nora Davis, her best friend and half-blood cousin, who nodded and turned to join in the conversation with some of the nearby Slytherin fourth-years.

By the time Hollis was exiting the Great Hall, Harry had reached the bottom of the marble staircase, Cedric was at the top. Hollis followed Harry as he followed Cedric at a distance heading toward the Charms corridor. Harry paused a distance from the group Cedric was with, pulling out his wand and aiming it at the Hufflepuff. 

“Harry, what are you doing?” Hollis called as she caught up to him. “Are you cursing him.”

“No, Hollis, shush. Diffindo!” 

Cedric’s bag split. Parchment, quills, and books spilled out of it onto the floor. Several bottles of ink smashed. 

“Don’t bother,” Hollis heard Cedric say in an exasperated voice as his friends bent down to help him. “Tell Flitwick I’m coming, go on. . . .” 

“Harry...” 

This was apparently exactly what Harry had been hoping for. He slipped his wand back into his robes, waited until Cedric’s friends had disappeared into their classroom, and hurried up the corridor, which was now empty of everyone but himself and Cedric. 

“Hi,” said Cedric, picking up a copy of A Guide to Advanced Transfiguration that was now splattered with ink. “My bag just split . . . brand-new and all . . .” 

“Cedric,” said Harry, “the first task is dragons.” 

“Harry!” Hollis hissed at him from where she stood a couple feet behind him. “What the heck!”

“What?” said Cedric, looking up? 

“Dragons,” said Harry, speaking quickly, in case Professor Flitwick came out to see where Cedric had got to. “They’ve got four, one for each of us, and we’ve got to get past them.” Cedric stared at him. Hollis saw some of the same panic that had been in Harry’s eyes since Sunday morning pass through Cedric’s. 

“Are you sure?” Cedric said in a hushed voice. 

“Dead sure,” said Harry. “I’ve seen them.” “But how did you find out? We’re not supposed to know. . . .” “Never mind,” said Harry. “But I’m not the only one who knows. Fleur and Krum will know by now — Maxime and Karkaroff both saw the dragons too.” 

Cedric straightened up, his arms full of inky quills, parchment, and books, his ripped bag dangling off one shoulder. He stared at Harry, and there was a puzzled, almost suspicious look in his eyes. 

“Why are you telling me?” he asked.

“It’s just . . . fair, isn’t it?” Harry replied to Cedric. “We all know now . . . we’re on an even footing, aren’t we?” 

“Harry is too nice for his own good.” Hollis commented helpfully stepping up beside the bespeckled boy, Cedric noticing her for the first time. 

“Sorry, who are you?” 

“Hollis Walsh, anyways, we should get going. Class you know.” Hollis pulled on Harry’s arm and tried to lead him away. 

Cedric was still looking at him in a slightly suspicious way when Harry heard a familiar clunking noise behind him. He turned around and saw Mad-Eye Moody emerging from a nearby classroom. “Come with me, Potter, you too, Walsh,” he growled. “Diggory, off you go.” 

“Thanks, Harry.” Cedric muttered as he rushed into his charms class. The two Gryffindors glanced apprehensively at each other. Hollis was internally beating herself up, this is what she got for being nice to Harry Potter. The boy just naturally attracted trouble. 

“Er — Professor, we’re supposed to be in Herbology —” Hollis began. 

“Never mind that. In my office, please. . . .” They followed him, both wondering what was going to happen to them now. 

What if Moody wanted to know how he’d found out about the dragons? Hollis hadn’t told her classmate anything, but she also knew that Harry wouldn’t throw Hagrid under the bus. _What would Moody do, what would Dumbledore do? What if she got expelled?_

They followed Moody into his office. Moody closed the door behind them and turned to look at Harry, his magical eye fixed upon him as well as the normal one. 

“That was a very decent thing you just did, Potter,” Moody said quietly. “It was good of you, regardless of Walsh trying to stop you.” Harry didn’t know what to say; this wasn’t the reaction he had expected at all. “Sit down,” said Moody, they sat. Hollis was so worried that she could barely pay attention to what was happening around her. She only tuned in when she heard Moody say: “So she told you about the dragons did she? Typical you Gryffindor’s always sticking together.” 

“N-no, sir.” Harry replied as Hollis hastily shot out: “I swear I didn’t!”

“Relax you two, cheating is a traditional part of the Triwizard Competition.”

“I didn’t cheat and Hollis didn’t help me cheat either,” said Harry sharply.

Hollis felt grateful for the honesty and that he was trying to keep her out of trouble as best he could.

“It was — a sort of accident that I found out.” 

Moody grinned. “I wasn’t accusing you two. I’ve been telling Dumbledore from the start, he can be as high-minded as he likes, but you can bet old Karkaroff and Maxime won’t be. They’ll have told their champions everything they can. They want to win. They want to beat Dumbledore. They’d like to prove he’s only human.” 

Moody gave another harsh laugh, and his magical eye swiveled around so fast it made Harry feel queasy to watch it. “So . . . got any ideas how you’re going to get past your dragon yet?” said Moody. 

“No,” said Harry. 

“Well, I’m not going to tell you,” said Moody gruffly. “I don’t show favoritism. I’m just going to give you some good, general advice. And the first bit is — play to your strengths.” 

“I haven’t got any,” said Harry, before he could stop himself.

“Excuse me,” growled Moody, “you’ve got strengths if I say you’ve got them. Think now. What are you best at?”

Harry looked stumped, but Hollis mind was whirling. She was nothing if not competitive to a fault.

“Quidditch, Harry, you’re brilliant at Quidditch.” Hollis cut in, already trying to figure out a way to use Harry’s skills. 

“And a fat lot of help —” he said dully. 

“That’s right,” said Moody was staring at him very hard, his magical eye barely moving at all. “You’re a damn good flier from what I’ve heard.” 

“Yeah, but . . .” Harry stared at him. “I’m not allowed a broom, I’ve only got my wand —” 

“My second piece of general advice,” said Moody loudly, interrupting him, “is to use a nice, simple spell that will enable you to get what you need.” Harry was looking at him blankly. “Come on, boy . . .” whispered Moody. “Put them together . . . it’s not that difficult. . . .” 

And it must have clicked for them both at the same time. He was best at flying. He needed to pass the dragon in the air. For that, he needed his Firebolt. And for his Firebolt, he needed — 

“We need Hermione.” Harry spoke aloud, Hollis nodding along in agreement. Moody let them out of his office with a firm nod and a grunt. The two raced out rushing to the greenhouses.

“Hermione,” Harry whispered, when they had sped into greenhouse three minutes later, he had uttered hurried apology to Professor Sprout leaving Hollis behind to explain to the professor where they were. “Hermione — I need you to help me.” 

“What d’you think I’ve been trying to do, Harry?” she whispered back, her eyes round with anxiety over the top of the quivering Flutterby Bush she was pruning. 

“Hermione, I need to learn how to do a Summoning Charm properly by tomorrow afternoon.” Hermione stared at the boy as if he had grown a second head, but nodded as the pieces clicked together.

“Let’s go.” Hermione was the one who explained to Professor Sprout that they desperately needed to go because Harry really needed to practise and even though there was only five more minutes of class they couldn’t possibly wait any longer.

The three sped out of the greenhouse, a certain Weasley eyes following them as they left. More than a little confused why _Hollis Walsh_ of all people was now hanging around his friends. Or rather his friend and Harry.

So they practiced. They skipped lunch, and headed for a free classroom, where Harry tried with all his might to make various objects fly across the room toward him. He was still having problems. The books and quills kept losing heart halfway across the room and dropping like stones to the floor. 

“Concentrate, Harry, concentrate. . . .” 

“What d’you think I’m trying to do?” said Harry angrily. “A great big dragon keeps popping up in my head for some reason. . . . Okay, try again. . . .” 

Harry and Hollis ending up skipping the rest of their classes to keep practicing, but Hermione refused point-blank to skive off Arithmancy. They both had a hard time staying focused without the detail-oriented brunette, instead throwing hypothetical questions about the dragon he would be facing around. Hollis answering them as best she could. She wasn’t sure if she was really helping, but every time she answered a question about the four dragons Harry seemed to relax more and more the knowledge providing him a good bubble against the reality of the next day. It wasn’t until much later, after supper when Hermione rejoined them that Harry began to truly improve. 

The three of them kept practicing until past midnight. Hermione couldn’t help but be a little surprised that Hollis had stuck around the whole time, she would the other girl’s company surprisingly nice.

While the pale girl with dark hair was in the same dorm room as Hermione she didn’t know much about her past what was common knowledge in the halls. Hollis was well known for picking fights with some of the Slytherin’s in their year, but spent the majority of her time with her cousin, Nora. She was ashamed to say that Hollis surprized her as well for being much smarter than she let on, it made her wonder whether she acted dumb in classes cause she was bored or if she was just really good at revising when it came time for tests and exams.

They would have stayed well past midnight, but Peeves turned up and, pretending to think that Harry wanted things thrown at him, started chucking chairs across the room. The three of them left in a hurry before the noise attracted Filch, and went back to the Gryffindor common room, which was now mercifully empty. 

At two o’clock in the morning, Harry stood near the fireplace, surrounded by heaps of objects: books, quills, several upturned chairs, an old set of Gobstones, and Neville’s toad, Trevor. Only in the last hour had Harry really got the hang of the Summoning Charm. 

“That’s better, Harry, that’s loads better,” Hermione said, looking exhausted but very pleased. 

Hollis who had appointed herself the provider of snacks had been nursing a mug of now emptied caffeinated something or other that she had retrieved in a quest for energy only half an hour ago. She couldn’t do much more than along with Hermione’s remarks but she internally bursting with pride. In the last two hours of practice the girls had grown more comfortable around each other and have been able to teach Harry together, their joint methods of learning the theory behind everything and just throwing caution to the wind mixed perfectly into Harry mastering the spell in record time. 

“ _Accio_ , _coffee cup_.” Hollis protested as her mug flew out of her grip and into Harry’s outstretched hand. 

“Give that back.” She demanded as Harry inspected the contents. 

“Geez, Hollis. How is your heart still beating? I think that was your hundredth cup today.” Hermione remarked, her playful grin faded the second she saw the angry look on Hollis’ face. “Hollis?” Hollis didn’t move her eyes fixed on her stolen mug. “Harry.” Hermione whispered. “Harry, give it back.” He didn’t move. “Seriously Harry, I think she might attack.” 

“She wouldn’t.” An all too familiar growl came from Hollis. “Never mind. Here you go.” He passed the mug back and Hollis happily refilled the cup with the last of the coffee pot Link had let her steal for the night. 

“You’re going to do amazing tomorrow, Harry.” Hollis remarked as she helped Hermione put away Harry’s growing collection of summoned knick-knacks. 

“Just as long as it works tomorrow,” Harry said. “The Firebolt’s going to be much farther away than the stuff in here, it’s going to be in the castle, and I’m going to be out there on the grounds. . . .” 

“That doesn’t matter,” said Hermione firmly 

“Just as long as you’re concentrating really, really hard on it, it’ll come.” Hollis promised. “Harry, you need to sleep . . . you’re going to need it tomorrow morning.” 

“Yeah, night girls.” 

“Night, Harry.” He left the common room leaving the two girls alone with each other for the first time since Hollis had seemingly inserted herself into Harry’s life the day before. 

“So, Hollis...” 

“Hermione...” 

“When did you and Harry become friends?” 

“Oh, we’re not friends.” 

“You’re not? Why are you here?” 

“Blackmail.” 

“Blackmail?” 

“Yep.” 

“What kind of blackmail?” Hermione asked, maybe it was the fact that they were awake at ungodly hours of the night, but the term just wasn’t registering in her mind with what she knew about Harry.

‘The kind I don’t want spreading around the school. That’s why it’s called _blackmail_.” 

“Oh.” 

“Night, Hermione.”


	4. Countdown to the First Task

The morning of came much quicker than Hollis would have liked. It felt like the world was ending when her alarm charm had woken her up at 4 am so she could make her way down to the dragon enclosure’s to help the dragon keepers move the very angry mother dragon’s to the arena where the tasks would take place.

“Morning, Hollis.” Charlie greeted as she trudged into view. “Get your coffee?” The second-oldest Weasley had only known Hollis for the couple of days he had been back on the Hogwarts grounds, but his younger siblings had been telling stories about the “Walsh girl with a surprising caffeine addiction and a hair-pin trigger temper.”

“No,” the girl spat out. “Link has decided that he will not serve me coffee before the sun comes up.” 

“Oh.” Charlie laughed. “Well it’s a good thing that we have some of our own. Over on the table help yourself to it, we have just a couple of last minutes tasks to do before we'll need your help.” 

“Sounds like a plan.” Hollis moved as quickly as she possibly could, which wasn’t very quick, to the table Charlie had pointed out to her. She grabbed one of the clean mugs and filled it with the rich, black substance that normally ran through her veins. She took a huge swig of it, ignoring the sugar and cream that was also sitting there for just pure caffeine. The taste made her choke, it was nasty, tasting more like petrol than what she was used to. 

“Ready to go, Hollis?” Charlie called, and the girl nodded abandoning her coffee to the cruel confines of the dirt. “Just keep them in check, we’re going to let them fly higher than usual, hopefully that will make them happier, it’s going to be the getting them into their pens that's gonna be a struggle.” Hollis nodded along to show she was listening, and transformed when Charlie gave the signal. 

She soared up above the trees and waited for the first dragon to push off and meet her in the air. 

Flying was Hollis’ favorite thing in the world, there was nothing like it. Nothing like soaring through the sky, over the trees and through the clouds. Nothing could compare to the feeling of freedom that it gave her. Hollis flew whenever she could without being seen by her classmates just to feel the wind over her scales. 

The other dragons joined her in the air and she helped corral them towards their pens. It went off without a hitch, the ability to change her size was extremely helpful. These dragons did not enjoy being controlled by the wizards below and they were beginning to nip at her in response to the little jets of fire she would throw at them to keep them in check. 

It took a grand total of four hours to get each dragon into its pen, and get the next dragon ready to go. By the time it was all over Hollis barely had enough energy to transform back into her human form. Charlie laughed as she choked back another terrible cup of coffee and began her slow trek back to school. She wanted to cry from exhaustion when she finally reached the school. She had missed breakfast but Hollis didn’t bother to go to class, instead heading to the Great Hall to join some of the students that were on break. 

Hollis just made it the Gryffindor table before she was out like a light. Her head resting on the table top using her hands as a pillow. She slept there peacefully until she was woken up by a very confused Nora Davis.

“Hol? Wake up, Hol!” 

“What!” Hollis shot up and inspected her surroundings. “What time is it?”

“It’s lunchtime. Where were you?” Nora asked sitting down and examining the sleepy brunette. “You didn’t come to breakfast, or class, or actually I didn’t even see you come in last night.”

“Oh, I was helping Harry—”

“You were with Potter!” Hollis couldn’t help giggling at Nora’s excited whisper. “Are you serious?” 

“Yes…”

“Can you introduce me?”

“Nora—” Her cousin had always stated that the Gryffindor seeker was cute, but when they had hit their third-year it had turned into an all encompassing crush that annoyed Hollis more than she'd ever admit.

“Please, please, please, please Hol! I’ll never ask for anything ever again!”

“Yes, you will.”

“No— well I might. But _please_.” Nora got off the bench and grasped Hollis’ hands kneeling at her feet. “You know that I’ve never liked another guy like I’ve liked him. And now you’re friends that’s the perfect opportunity for me—” 

“We’re _not_ friends, Nora.”

“But—”

“We’re not!”

“Please, Hol? _Please_?” Hollis studied her cousin’s face.

“If I say yes will you leave me alone?” Hollis groaned while Nora nodded happily in agreement. “I can’t promise anything.” Nora hopped to her feet with a grin and waited for her cousin to get up and switch tables to join her at the Slytherin table where they normally sat. While the Slytherin’s may have hated Hollis uniform they had gotten used to her presence and stopped complaining after Hollis 'accidentally' knocked out a sixth year in her second semester at school. As Hollis got up to join her cousin a certain boy with a lightning scar walked into the Great Hall accompanied by Hermione who seemed to be running much better than Hollis on the few hours of sleep that the girl's had got the night before. “Speaking of Harry, I need to go talk to him. Is it okay…”

“Go!" Nora shooed her cousin away far too excited for the time of day in Hollis' humble opinion. "One of the older Slytherin girls promised she would show me her charm for turning silverware into hair clips anyway.” Hollis nodded, watching her cousin slide into her seat at the Slytherin table. The tired brunette made her way over to join the duo that was taking their seats closer to the back of the room than to the teacher’s seats.

“Morning.” She greeted as she slid into a seat across from Harry. 

“It’s past noon, Hollis.” Hermione commented, she was quickly distracted by the food being passed around her.

“Where were you this morning?” Harry asked, and Hollis shook her head at him miming a dragon flying with her hands. “Oh…” 

“Do you think that the Giant Squid would enjoy dancing?” Hollis asked, trying to move the conversation away from her morning with the first thing she could think of.

“What?” Hermione asked, the strange question tuning her back into the conversation.

“I don’t. He has too many legs, would trip all over them.” Hollis replied to herself, struggling to keep her face straight.

“So!” Hermione interjected before Hollis could continue her strange solo conversation. “How are you feeling, Harry?”

“Not good.” Harry replied, cutting angrily into his slice of chicken pot pie. “Fine, I guess.”

“You’re going to do fine, Harry.” Hermione replied, kicking Hollis (who was inspecting her glass of water with interest) under the table.

“What? Oh yeah, you’re going to be brilliant, Harry.” Hollis added on before passing her cup to Hermione. “Does that look clean to you?”

“Yes.” Hermione passed the cup back. 

“Just remember to focus and your broom will come to you just fine.” Hollis put in. 

“I know Hollis.” Harry snapped, and the brunette recoiled. “Sorry.”

“I know you’re stressed.” Hollis replied, the lack of sleep making her far less willing to let the accidental anger in his response slide. “But that does not excuse your manners.”

“I said sorry.”

“And I forgive you, but keep it in mind.” Hollis stared Harry down until he nodded blushing furiously at her. 

“I will, Hollis. Geez, and I thought ‘Mione was bad about manners.” Before Hermione could retort or Hollis could snap at him again, Professor McGonagall appeared behind Harry.

“Potter, the champions have to come down onto the grounds now. . . . You have to get ready for your first task.” 

“Okay,” said Harry, standing up, his fork falling onto his plate with a clatter. 

As he did McGonagall caught sight of Hollis, the elderly professor leaned down and whispered to her: “Charlie is requesting you down at the pens before the trials.”

“Good luck, Harry,” Hermione whispered. “You’ll be great!” 

Hollis waited until Harry was clear from the Great Hall before getting up herself. “Where are you going?” Hermione inquired as the brunette collected her things and shoved an extra dinner roll in her school robe’s inner pocket.

“I forgot that I need to go… do… stuff…” Hollis shook her head at her pathetic answer and sprinted away from Hermione. “Save me a seat, will ya?” She called over her shoulder as she disappeared through the massive doors that would lead to the Entrance Hall. 

McGonagall was leading Harry towards the new stadium built especially for this one event. As him and McGonagall came to a stop, Hollis appeared (in dragon form) landing beside Harry. It caught him off guard but he was grateful that he didn’t scream and embarrass himself in front of their head of house when she transformed back to human the moment her feet touched the ground. 

“You’re to go in here with the other champions,” said Professor McGonagall, in a rather shaky sort of voice, “And wait for your turn, Potter. Mr. Bagman is in there . . . he’ll be telling you the — the procedure. . . . Good luck.” 

“Thanks,” said Harry, in a flat, distant voice. He entered the tent, and the Professor turned to face Hollis. 

“Really, Miss Walsh, could you be any more obvious about your status as an Animagus.”

“I’m sorry, Professor, but I had to get here quickly and my legs are just too short. What! Harry already knew!” 

Professor McGonagall stared at the girl unsure of how to respond to the girl. Instead of attempting to find the words she dismissed her to continue to the dragon cages where Charlie would be waiting for her. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Well there we go, we're about to hit one of the first main plot lines for Hollis so enjoy this shorter chapter! Please feel free to comment and leave kudos if you're enjoying The Probability of Falling, I love to hear from everyone. I update every Friday so make sure to check back in there of subscribe/bookmark to get notifications when I update! See y'all next week ~ xo Queenie


	5. The First Task

The scariest thing about being in her dragon form to Hollis was how tempting it was to never become human again. Every time that she transformed there was always a small siren call from inside her that told her she should stay like that. With the frequency that she had been transforming and the length of time that she stayed in her dragon form the call to remain was only intensifying. 

It had taken nearly all of her willpower to change back to normal once Charlie had confirmed with Renner (the Head Dragon Keeper) that she was good to go. Hollis had flown away from the area in dragon-form, only the size of a small bird. If she was being honest that was probably what made it so enticing to her, the ability to be unseen. This form she could be whatever size she wanted, as large as a house or as small as a beetle. It made her feel free whenever she changed her size, it made her feel as if she were invincible. As she had flown away she kept having to remind herself:

I am Hollis. I am human.

Shad forgotten her name; she knew who she was but she was struggling to remember _what_ she was. 

Hollis had planned to watch Harry compete, but when she had forced herself to transform back to normal, she had been hit by a blinding headache; bad enough that she couldn’t see straight and fell to the ground. Hollis managed pick herself and make it out of the trees to the spectator entrance where she slumped against the wall trying to clear her head and get the energy to track down Hermione in the crowd.

“Hey, are you okay?” A girl’s voice asked, and Hollis looked through her blurry vision to see someone that looked vaguely like a Hufflepuff.

“I’m fine.” Hollis lied, she didn’t really want help from a random stranger.

“No, you’re not. C’mon.” The girl hauled Hollis up to her feet. “I’m taking you to Madam Pomfrey, you need help.”

“I really don-” Hollis lost her balance and slammed into the other girl. “Okay, maybe I do.” Hollis felt the girl try to lead her away from where she had been sitting on the ground, but her feet felt like lead.

“Okay, I need you to walk. I’m not strong enough to drag you.” 

“Okay.” Hollis let the girl lead her slowly. “Where are we going?” Hollis may not be able to see very well but she was able to see that she wasn’t being led back to the castle. 

“Madam Pomfrey is in the Champions tent.”

“Why would she be _there_?” Hollis asked, she didn’t feel good. Her head kind of felt like it was upside down, and her brain felt a little— okay maybe a lot fuzzy. “It’s not like that’s where the infirmary is.” Hollis let out a little laugh. 

“Are you high?”

"Oh, no my feet are firmly on the ground so I couldn’t possibly be.”

"You totally are. Hollis!”

"How do you know my name!”

"We’re in like all the same classes, Hollis.”

"No, we’re not.” Hollis tried to open her eyes and see the other girl’s face. When she couldn’t see it it stumped her. “Do you have a face? What’s it like not having a face?”

"Holy crap, what’s wrong with her?” Hollis recognized Harry’s voice.

"I found her like this.” 

"She can’t be in here.” A woman with a thick French accent yelled, causing Hollis’ head to split into two.

"She can’t be in here.” Hollis mimicked, head pounding. Her hands felt like they were simultaneously a light as a feather and as heavy as a million pounds.

"Madam Pomfrey!” Harry’s voice cried out. “Help!”

Hollis felt a strong pair of hands grip her underneath her arms and lift her up onto a bed.

"Harry, it’s your turn.”

"I can’t go out there.”

"You have to it’s in the magically binding contract-”

"Why is this bed sooo soft?” Hollis asked, rubbing the softest blanket she had ever felt against her face. “It’s so comfy.”

“Harry you need to go.”

"I can’t, my friend is hurt.”

"Oh, I’m fine.” Hollis replied, a huge loopy smile made its way across her face. “You should go. Dragons are _very_ fun to fight with.” 

"You heard her she’ll be fine, Mr. Potter. I’ve got her, just focus on winning right now.”

"Ta ta Harry.” Hollis giggled, a small butterfly landed on her nose and tickled her cheeks with it’s wings. “Have _fun_.”

"Is she high?” The girl’s voice was back. “I found her like this by the Spectators entrance.”

"She’ll be okay, why don’t you go watch Harry compete with the other competitors, Ms. Scamander.”

"Oh, uh, yeah, sure.” There was a rustling, and Hollis could only hear who she could only assume was Madam Pomfrey moving around her. 

"Miss Hollis, how much time have you spent as a dragon in the past two weeks?”

"A dragon? Don’t be silly if I were a dragon, I would always be a dragon.” Hollis replied with a giggle. 

"Miss Hollis… how much time?” 

"A lot of the time was spent in the sky, almost all of it.”

"Drink this.”

"It doesn’t smell good.”

"Please drink.”

"I don’t want to.” Hollis sniffed at the vial that was being held to her lips. It smelt like Brussel Sprouts. “I want coffee. Lots of it, full of sugar and cream, and all the chocolate in the world.”

"Ms Walsh, this is your last chance to drink or I’m going to be forced to force it down your throat.”

"You can’t make me!”

"Or I could put you into a magically coma until you are better.”

Hollis didn’t like the sound of a magical coma.

"Fine.” She huffed. 

She felt the potion be tipped to the back of her throat. As the nasty liquid flowed down her throat, a hot feeling flooded her body that was quickly replaced by the cold. Slowly, but surely Hollis’ vision returned and the fog was lifted from her brain as she listened to the crowd cheer for Harry, and as the dragon roared. “Is he okay?” Hollis asked, Madam Pomfrey who was watching her. 

"He’s just fine. Stay still.”

Hollis watched the nurse mutter incantations over her a small yellow light leaving her wand and landing on her. It spread over her entire body and settled into her skin where she felt the magic tighten over her skin and burn against her for a moment. It was an incredibly uncomfortable feeling, and it caused Hollis to yell in surprize before stopping herself out of a renewed sense of embarrassment.

“How are you feeling?”

"I feel fine, I don’t really understand what happened.”

“You nearly lost yourself.”

“No… I- I- I didn’t. I turned back without any issues.”

"I’ll get Professor McGonagall explain it to you, but Hollis you can’t transform back. Not for a long time.”

"Why not!” Hollis couldn’t believe that Madam Pomfrey could think that was a good idea. Flying was her only therapy in the madness that was being a student, being a teenager. It was how she dealt with life.

"Hollis, I know that this may sound extreme, but if you try to transform before your body has time to reset you could get stuck permanently. Your mind may have been human when you turned back but your body was losing itself.”

“It was just a headache.”

“Miss Walsh, you were out of it. You couldn’t see anything.”

"H-how do _you_ know that?” 

"Your eyes were open-”

"-no they weren’t.”

"Yes, they were, but you couldn’t focus. You were going blind.”

"As _if_.”

"Miss Walsh, you need to take this seriously.”

"I am, and I can _see_ that you are being seriously stupid. I can’t not transform, you can’t stop me!”

“Miss Walsh, this is unacceptable. I am telling you that if you do not stop your transformations you _will_ get stuck as a dragon, and you _will_ lose yourself.”

"And I’m telling you, that’s not what happened! You can’t take this from me!”

"I can and I will.” There was no sign of retreat in Madam Pomfrey’s face as she stared down the angry Fourth Year. “Until further notice you will _not_ be transforming.”

"What do you mean?” Hollis asked, glaring at Madam Pomfrey, there was no sign in her face that she would back down. “What did you _do_?”

"You will not be endangering your health over something so trivial-”

"Trivial!” Hollis yelled. “Trivial? This is mine, not yours. _You_ don’t just get to define this for me that isn’t your righ—”

"Um…” Harry stared nervously between the two. “Professor McGonagall sent me to get my shoulder looked at.”

"Right.” Madam Pomfrey closed her eyes as her train of thought switched gears. “ _Right_. Potter, you sit down on that bed.” She gestured to an empty cot, as the other champions returned to the room and took their places back on their cots. Hollis vaguely recognized the girl that walked in with Cedric Diggory, but she wasn’t sure from where. 

“Dragons!” Pomfrey said in a disgusted tone, Hollis wasn’t sure if she was talking about the dragons outside or herself.

Madam Pomfrey, began to clean off Harry’s shoulder, which was bleeding but other than that looked fine, talking furiously all the while. “Last year dementors, this year dragons, what are they going to bring into this school next? You’re very lucky . . . this is quite shallow . . . it’ll need cleaning before I heal it up, though. . . .”

“Are you alright, Hollis?” The girl asked, Cedric was standing nearby, and Hollis could only assume that it was his bed that she had stolen. 

“Uh, yeah, just a migraine. I’m sorry, you look _so_ familiar but I can’t place your name.”

“It’s alright.” The girl said with a laugh, pulling her dark hair into a ponytail at the nape of her neck while she spoke. “I’m Alessandra, Alessandra Scamander.”

“Aren’t you—”

“He’s my grandfather.”

“—in my remedial potions class? _You’re_ the one that Snape is always praising for being smarter than his Seventh Years!” Hollis laughed as Alessandra blushed furiously, nodding. “Well thanks for bringing me here. My head was killing me!”

“Of course, it’s what anyone would do. Even a _Slytherin_ , though I guess that’s a bit of a biased thing to say. Rolf would not be pleased with me…” Alessandra trailed off, her blush intensifying even more. Both Hollis and Cedric (who was standing a little bit away listening) laughed lightly as the Hufflepuff tried to figure how to get her foot out of her mouth. “Are you sure you’re okay? You looked like you were on death’s doors when I found you.”

“Yeah, I’m fine. Pomfrey gave me something or other and now I feel just fine.” 

“Magic can be crazy like that can’t it.” Cedric put in, both girls turned to look at him. “Sorry, uh, hi I’m-”

“Cedric.” Both girls said in unison exchanging a shared laugh as they realized what they had done.

“Everyone knows who you are, silly.” Alessandra laughed. “You’re kind of the school champion.” 

“And the seeker for the Hufflepuff team.” Hollis added. 

“And you run that tutoring thing during exams.”

“ _And_ once you tripped one of those Slytherins who are hoping to be the next You-Know-Who in the Great Hall, and McGonagall nearly cried from joy.” 

“Plus you’re in my house. How could we not know who you are?”

“Oh, yeah,” It was Cedric’s turn to blush madly as the two younger girls tried not to laugh at his embarrassment. “Well I’m still getting used to the whole eternal glory thing and people knowing who I am.”

“If it makes you feel better, I’m pretty sure everyone at this school knew who you were before this.” 

“Uh… thanks. I think…” Cedric scratched the back of his neck as a look of realization spread across his face. “You’re that girl that tried to stop Harry from telling me about the dragons. Hollis right?”

“Uh… yeah… I’m not going to apologize for that by the way.”

“Wouldn’t expect anything less from a Gryffindor.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Alessandra asked, the dangerous edge to her voice surprised both Hollis and Cedric.

“Uh…” Cedric struggled to find his words as the younger girl stared him down. Hollis blinked back a wave of dizziness as her head protested the loud cheering that was taking place outside the tent where the three schools’ students and the spectators were waiting for the results.

Hollis watched as Madam Pomfrey left Harry to go check on Fleur who was sporting a nasty looking burn on her leg from her dragon catching her skirt on fire. 

“Excuse me.” Hollis left the two Hufflepuffs who were still talking to each other though the topic of house unity seemed to be long gone leaving both of them looking far more relaxed and went to join Harry. “How’d you do?” Hollis asked. “Sorry, I didn’t see. I was a little-”

“No worries.” Harry cut in, Hollis shot him a glare that quickly turned into a smile. “How are you feeling? You were like scary out of it when I left.”

“Oh, I’m _fine_. Just a migraine, y’know.”

“Are you sure—” Harry didn’t continue, cut off by two people who had come darting inside — Hermione, followed closely by Ron.

“Harry, you were brilliant!” Hermione said squeakily. There were fingernail marks on her face where she had been clutching it in fear. “You were amazing! You really were!” Harry was very noticeably not paying any attention to her instead looking at Ron, who was very white and staring at Harry as though he were a ghost.

“Harry,” he said, very seriously, “whoever put your name in that goblet — I — I reckon they’re trying to do you in!”

Hollis watched the anger cross Harry’s face.

“Caught on, have you?” said Harry coldly, colder than she thought possible for the normally happy-go-lucky Gryffindor boy. “Took you long enough.”

Hermione stood nervously between them, looking from one to the other. Hollis stood there rather awkwardly as if she was intruding on a rather intimate moment between two rather angry friends. Ron opened his mouth uncertainly, Hollis cringed when she thought about how badly this could go.

“It’s okay,” Harry said, before Ron could get the words out. “Forget it.”

“No,” said Ron, “I shouldn’t’ve —”

“Forget it,” Harry repeated.

Ron grinned nervously at him, and Harry grinned back. Hollis and Hermione both shared a sigh of relief. The former, because awkward situations made her well… awkward, and the latter because she was tired of being treated like an owl. 

Hermione burst into tears. 

“There’s nothing to cry about!” Harry told her, bewildered. 

“You two are so stupid!” she shouted, stamping her foot on the ground, tears splashing down her front. Then, before either of them could stop her, she had given both of them a hug and dashed away, now positively howling with tears of relief. 

“Barking mad,” said Ron, shaking his head. “Harry, c’mon, they’ll be putting up your scores.” As Harry picked up the golden egg and his Firebolt, Ron noticed Hollis for the first time. “What are you doing back here?”

“Uh…”

“She helped me train for the task.”

“Oh.” Ron took a moment for the information to sink in.

“I’m Hollis.” She added, smiling awkwardly and exchanging a nervous glance with Harry and Hermione.

“I know who you are. You punched George in the jaw last year.”

“Sorry—”

“Don’t be sorry, it was bloody brilliant. The prat had it coming to him for bugging you. I mean anyone whose seem what you can do to Goyle should know better.” 

“Oh, well, thanks.” Hollis smiled, and Ron grinned back. Under normal circumstances it would have taken them much longer to warm up to each other, but they were both filled with relief that Harry was alive and that there wasn’t a huge fight going on. As they ducked out of the tent, Harry had Ron and Hollis by his side, the former started talking fast. 

“You were the best, you know, no competition. Don’t you agree Hollis?”

“I didn’t get to see anything.”

“Oh, well Cedric did this weird thing where he Transfigured a rock on the ground . . . turned it into a dog . . . he was trying to make the dragon go for the dog instead of him. Well, it was a pretty cool bit of Transfiguration, and it sort of worked, because he did get the egg, but he got burned as well — the dragon changed its mind halfway through and decided it would rather have him than the Labrador; he only just got away. And that Fleur girl tried this sort of charm, I think she was trying to put it into a trance — well, that kind of worked too, it went all sleepy, but then it snored, and this great jet of flame shot out, and her skirt caught fire — she put it out with a bit of water out of her wand. And Krum — you won’t believe this, but he didn’t even think of flying! He was probably the best after you, though. Hit it with some sort of spell right in the eye. Only thing is, it went trampling around in agony and squashed half the real eggs — they took marks off for that, he wasn’t supposed to do any damage to them.” 

Ron drew breath as they reached the edge of the enclosure. 

“Its marks out of ten from each one,” Ron said, and Hollis, squinting up the field, saw the first judge — Madame Maxime — raise her wand in the air. What looked like a long silver ribbon shot out of it, twisting itself into a large figure eight.

“Not bad!” said Ron as the crowd applauded. “I suppose she took marks off for your shoulder. . . .” The man that Hollis thought might have been Crouch came next. He shot a number nine into the air. “Looking good!” Ron yelled, thumping Harry on the back. Next, Dumbledore. He too put up a nine. The crowd was cheering harder than ever. Ludo Bagman — ten. Hollis couldn’t believe her eyes. Not only was Harry alive and safe, but he had got a ten.

“Ten?” said Harry in disbelief. “But . . . I got hurt. . . . What’s he playing at?” 

“Harry, don’t complain!” Ron yelled excitedly. 

“A ten out of ten!” Hollis screeched beside him ignoring her head’s very loud protest. “Harry you must have been brilliant!”

And now Karkaroff raised his wand. He paused for a moment, and then a number shot out of his wand too — four. 

“What?” Ron bellowed furiously. “Four? You lousy, biased scumbag, you gave Krum ten!”

Hollis couldn’t help but agree, she probably would have chimed in with Ron’s indignation if she hadn’t felt so tired. It was like the walk from the tent and cheering for Harry had drained the little energy she had got back.

“Great job, Harry.” Hollis said, tapping his uninjured shoulder to catch his attention. “I’ll see you in the common room in a bit, I’m exhausted, I’m going to go grab a cup of coffee.”

“Thanks again, Hollis. See ya in the common room?”

“Sounds about right to me. Bye, Ron.”

“Bye, Hollis!” The red-head called after the girl’s already retreating figure. “Man alive mate, how’d you manage to tame Hollis Walsh into being your friend?”

“We’re not friends.” Harry replied, a huge smile crossing his face as him and Ron went back to the infirmary tent to retrieve his things.

“Okay, whatever you say mate.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I hope you're enjoying the fic so far, I'd love to hear what y'all are thinking! I upload every Friday, but make sure to bookmark or subscribe in order to never miss a new chapter. ttyl ~ xo queenie


	6. An After Party

Hollis couldn’t help but feel left out as Harry, Ron and Hermione left her in the common room. They had sworn that they were just going to talk through all the hurt feelings from the past month.

While Hollis was all for the reconciliation between Ron and Harry (she had seen how much he missed Ron even though she had only been talking to Harry and Hermione for a couple days). She couldn’t help but feel like it was just an excuse as the trio walked away whispering about marauders, letters and something called a Snuffles. It really shouldn’t have bothered her as much as it did, she was used to being lonely in this tower. While Gryffindor tower was home to her, the people here were not her family. She was far more comfortable with Nora and Prince, Nora’s other best friends twin brother, while they may not have been Gryffindors but who were nice to her.

To take her concentration off of the eternal loneliness she felt in her own house, Hollis decided to focus on helping the Weasley twins get food out of the kitchens. By the time the trio had returned Hollis was downing a third mug of coffee and had tucked herself into one of the common room corners watching the festivities.

It was her own fault that she there, no one in the Gryffindor house understood why she willingly hung around a Slytherin and most were wary of Hollis who they viewed as strange for it. Hollis had given up on trying to explain that not only was her cousin, Nora, not your normal Slytherin but she was also her best friend and she wasn’t going to let that change because of different colours on their school uniforms.

Hollis felt exhausted which helped her enjoy her time on the sidelines. She found it fascinating to watch friendships grow and fall apart, to witnessing clumsy first kisses shared by a group of third years playing spin the bottle by the stairs all without moving an inch from where she was seated. It was like the muggle tv her dad had bought two summers before but 100x better.

She liked to watch the Weasley twins most of all; the two seemed to dance through the common room. She watched intrigued as Fred effortlessly charmed a new target, as George dropped itching powder down their robes. She was fascinated by how they could be so cruel and yet so popular and even entertaining— it didn’t matter how much they teased you one minute, the very next you would want to get know them better.

“Thank you.”

Hollis was snapped out of her people watching by Harry’s figure appearing beside her. 

“Pardon?”

“I said, thank you.” Harry repeated.

“For what?”

“For helping me with this task, I couldn’t have done it without you.”

“Sure, you could have. Hermione would’ve been able to help you without me.”

“I’m sure if she could have, but I felt better knowing I had a dragon on my side.” There was an awkward pause as neither teen knew what to say or do. “Um, actually that’s what I wanted to talk to you about.” 

“I don’t understand.” 

Harry scratched the back of his head awkwardly.

“Yeah, well, you see, I, uh, feel guilty.”

“Guilty?”

“Yeah, since I… ya know—”

“Extorted me?”

“I wouldn’t—”

“Blackmailed me then?”

“I mean I wouldn’t use such harsh—” Harry was cut off by a loud noise he had never heard before; Hollis was laughing. 

“I’m teasing you, Harry.” A grin plastered on her face, that Harry couldn’t help but return. “Y’know for someone who acts so untouchable it sure is easy to get under your skin.”

“Untouchable?” Harry seemed taken aback by the girl’s analysis of him. “Me?”

“Yeah, look at who you are, look at what you’re capable of, how could you not call yourself untouchable?”

“I’m not untouchable, Hollis.”

“Yes, you are. You’re only 14 and you’re doing amazingly in the Triwizard Tournament. The fourth competitor in the _Tri_ wizard Tournament.”

“That’s not being untouchable, that’s me getting tricked into a magically binding contract.”

“You’re rather melodramatic, has anyone told you?”

"I'm not being dramatic. I'm serious, stuff like this has not stopped happening to me since I found out I was a wizard."

"Like what?"

"Like in first year, I saved the Philosopher's Stone at the end of the year from-"

"Is that what you guys got all those house points for? Man alive, you guys pissed Nora off."

"Nora?"

"My cousin, she's in Slytherin."

"She’s the blonde one that’s always around you and Prince, yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Oh, she's one of the ni—"

"Blimey, Harry, this is heavy." Lee Jordan yelled across the room as he picked up the egg Harry had left on the table. "Open it, Harry, go on."

Harry looked helplessly at Hollis who smiled weakly and motioned for him to go. "Let's see what's inside." She whispered, and he nodded letting himself be carried away to the center of the room where the egg was sitting basking in its own glory.

"He's supposed to work out the clues on his own." Hermione said swiftly appearing beside Hollis. "It's in the Tournament rules..."

"Yeah, go on Harry, open it." Several people echoed Lee’s request.

It was hollow and completely empty, Hollis would know since she had been left in charge of babysitting the thing while the Golden Trio had disappeared earlier — but the moment Harry opened it, the most horrible noise, a loud and screechy wailing, filled the room. It sounded to Hollis like someone had aggressively scraped a metal fork across more metal while recorded and then played it several times over itself.

“Shut it!” Fred bellowed, his hands over his ears.

“What was that?” said Seamus Finnigan, staring at the egg as Harry slammed it shut again. “Sounded like a banshee. . . . Maybe you’ve got to get past one of those next, Harry!”

“It was someone being tortured!” said Neville, who had gone very white and spilled sausage rolls all over the floor. “You’re going to have to fight the Cruciatus Curse!”

“Don’t be a prat, Neville, that’s illegal,” replied George. “They wouldn’t use the Cruciatus Curse on the champions. I thought it sounded a bit like Percy singing . . . maybe you’ve got to attack him while he’s in the shower, Harry.”

“Want a jam tart, Hermione?” said Fred, the twin appearing beside the two girls.

Hermione looked doubtful at the plate he was offering her. Fred grinned and winked at her.

“It’s all right,” he said. “I haven’t done anything to them. It’s the custard cream you’ve got to watch —”

Neville, who had just bitten into a custard cream, choked and spat it out. Fred laughed.

“Just my little joke, Neville. . . .” Hermione took a jam tart. Then she said, “Did you get all this from the kitchens, Fred?”

“Yep,” said Fred, grinning at her. He put on a high-pitched squeak and imitated a house-elf. “‘Anything we can get you, sir, anything at all!’ They’re dead helpful . . . get me a roast ox if I said I was peckish.”

“Or coffee at any time of day, don’t forget!” Hollis put in, Fred shared a grin with her as they both thought about the wondrous world that was the kitchens below Hogwarts.

“How do you get in there?” Hermione said in an innocently casual sort of voice, Hollis couldn’t help put frown at the girl confused why she was acting weird.

“Easy,” said Fred, “concealed door behind a painting of a bowl of fruit. Just tickle the pear, and it giggles and —” He stopped and looked suspiciously at her. “Why?” 

“Nothing,” said Hermione quickly.

“Going to try and lead the house-elves out on strike now, are you?” said George. “Going to give up all the leaflet stuff and try and stir them up into rebellion?” 

Several people chortled, Hermione didn't answer.

"Don't you go upsetting them and telling them they've got to take clothes and salaries!" Hollis cut in well aware of Hermione's thought process. "You'll only upset them. Trust me Link likes his work and his life. House elves at Hogwarts like what they do." 

Just then, Neville caused a slight diversion by turning into a large canary. “Oh — sorry, Neville!” Fred shouted over all the laughter. “I forgot — it was the custard creams we hexed —” 

Within a minute, however, Neville had molted, and once his feathers had fallen off, he reappeared looking entirely normal. He even joined in laughing. 

“Canary Creams!” Fred shouted to the excitable crowd. “George and I invented them — seven Sickles each, a bargain!”

Hollis moved away from the crowd and up to the girl’s dormitory, leaving the ruckus behind her. She got on her pajamas and went to brush her teeth. Her head had started to pound again and the day had thoroughly wiped her. It didn’t help that she still wasn’t ready to mentally process everything that had happened with what Madame Pomfrey had told her quite yet.

When she walked back to her bed she was surprised by the presence of two letters and a Snowy Owl on her bed. Hollis quickly retrieved them, giving the owl a treat from the stash she kept in her trunk and letting it back out the window before it could leave behind any unpleasant gifts on her bed. With the giant bird out of the way she was able to inspect the letters. The first letter was from Professor McGonagall summoning her to speak with her in the morning before breakfast. The second one was unsigned but Hollis had no trouble guessing who it had come from:

I hope you feel better in the morning. Thanks for all your help, once again.

Attached to the note was a small figurine of a Hungarian Horntail, that growled at her when she placed it on her nightstand. As Hollis fell asleep she couldn’t stop the smile that had made its way onto her face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for tuning in for this chapter! I would love to hear what you think about the Probability of Falling so far! Please leave a kudos, comment or subscribe so I know that you're enjoying it! What would you like to see in the future? Let me know!


	7. Meetings With McGonagall

Hollis woke up to Hermione asking her if she was feeling better and did she want lunch?

It was only then that she realized that not only had she overslept but she had missed both breakfast and the beginning of lunch, but she had slept through her meeting with McGonagall.

"I'm going to die, Hermione!" Hollis shrieked as she jumped out of bed. Her head was spinning from getting up so quickly, but she pressed through it trying to pull her school uniform on only but gave when she realized she really couldn’t care less about the uniform at this point.

"Have you seen my jumper?" Hollis asked Hermione who was watching the girl with a concerned look on her face. 

"Aren't you wearing it?" Hermione asked, Hollis looked down to see that she was indeed wearing one of her many jumpers but it wasn't the jumper she was thinking of. 

"No, the blue one."

"Hollis, no offense, but I have never really paid attention to your jumper collection before today.”

"Uh..."

"However, I do think you may have thrown it on Parvati's bed."

Hollis turned to see that she had indeed thrown it behind her in her rush to find her school uniform. Yanking the jumper over her head, Hollis rushed out of the room with Hermione close behind her. It was much easier for Hollis to run in her leggings and jumper than it was for Hermione in her normal robes and skirts. Within moments of exiting the common room Hollis had left Hermione in the dust. As the girl ran to the Great Hall she attempted to yank her hair into a ponytail, letting her bed head run rampant as long as it was out of her face. 

Hollis sprinted straight into the Great Hall ignoring the stares that she was receiving from her classmates and the glares from the teachers for breaking the rules. She darted into an empty place beside Ron at the Gryffindor table as quickly as she possibly could. 

“Hollis!” 

Hollis hadn’t realized that Nora had been standing at the table seemingly speaking with Harry until she had spoken. Nora seemed to be immune to the stares she was receiving for being a Slytherin peacefully speaking with her Gryffindor classmates. 

“Morning er- hey, Nora.”

“You weren’t in any of our classes today, and I was worried sick so I wanted to ask your roommates where you were, except I kind of forgot who your roommates were…” Nora trailed off as Hollis easily put together the fact that her cousin was using her being sick as an excuse to talk to her crush. 

Hollis didn’t blame the blonde though, if Nora was sick and it meant she could talk to a boy she liked without it being completely bizarre she would totally seize that opportunity too. 

“Well here I am.”

“Are you feeling better?” Harry asked, Ron nodding in agreement to the question although he had just stuffed a bite of Shepherd’s Pie in his mouth.

“Much. Nothing Madam Pomfrey, and a tight twelve hours of sleep can’t fix.”

“Why were you even sick in the first place?” Nora asked, unaware of most of what happened the day before other than that one key detail. “Like Auntie Spensa always says you have the immune system of a dragon.”

Both Harry and Hollis shared a guilty look at the word dragon, Harry’s eyes widening as he realized that Hollis’ own cousin probably didn’t know about her animagus while he did.

“Just a horrific migraine, probably smelled something funny in the potions room, and it set one off.” Hollis lied, Harry nodding along even though his opinion about the credibility of her story didn’t truly matter.

“Why would you be in the potions room on a Tuesday? Not to mention a Tuesday that we got off.” Nora asked.

“Uh…” Hollis didn’t know how to respond, she had never been a good liar. “I got a detention?”

“You did?” Ron asked, growing more confused when Harry tried to subtly shut him up (which means it was not subtle in the slightest). “I don’t remember you getting detention in that class like ever.”

“I got it during my remedial potions class.” The lie slipped off of Hollis tongue before she realized what she was saying.

“You’re in remedial potions?” Hermione had finally arrived at their table in time to hear Hollis’ confession.

“Um, yes…” Hollis was blushing like mad. While Hollis was well known throughout their year for not getting along with the Slytherins, it wasn’t very well known that a lot of her animosity towards Snape was based on the fact that he was trying to fail her out of potions. “I’m terrible at Potions. It was Dumbledore’s idea, since it’s my weakest subject.”

“I didn’t know that was a real thing.” Ron commented, Hermione gave him a look that silently berated him for the slightly insensitive comment, but he ignored it and instead shrugged. “Honestly, I probably should be in it.”

Hollis laughed with the others as. 

“Well, I should go get something to eat before Pansy tries to spread another rumor that I have an eating disorder.” Nora said it with a laugh but realized that she had made a mistake too late. Hollis was up within moments and ready to go beat up the Slytherin, luckily for both parties involved Ron had grabbed her wrist instinctively pulling her back down to the table. “I was joking, Hol!” Nora tagged on quickly, trying to calm down her cousin was glaring furiously at Pansy Parkinson’s back.

“Were you?” Hollis asked glaring at her cousin. “Don’t cover up for people that treat you like dirt, Nora, they deserve what’s coming to them.”

“And she’ll get what’s coming to her, I was going to pay Fred and George 10 sickles to make her hair fall out during supper tonight. She’ll get what’s coming to her, and on my terms too.” 

“Nora…”

“Seriously, Hol! It’s fine!” Nora began walking away.

“Nora!”

“I’m walking away, I can’t hear you. La la la…” Nora walked away from the Gryffindor table and made her way to sit back at her own table, between two Drumstrang students who instantly tried involved her in their conversation.

“Hollis, why do I feel like you’re going to do something you’ll regret?” Hermione asked, as Hollis glared at Pansy Parkinson from across the hall. 

“Because you worry too much, ‘Mione?” Hollis asked instantly, shifting her focus back to the other Gryffindors. 

“She’s got you there, Hermione.” Ron laughed, ducking when Hermione threw a dinner roll at him. 

“Hollis, did you by any chance piss off McGonagall yesterday?” Harry asked, looking over at the staff table that McGonagall was swiftly leaving making her way towards the girl.

“I mean not really…” Hollis lied, and Hermione coughed choking on her laugh as it came out, having witnessed the mess that was Hollis was when she woke up. “A little bit. I slept through our meeting this morning.”

Both Ron and Harry stared at the girl in shock, no one will any sense of self-preservation would have skived off of a meeting with McGonagall. Hermione reached across the table from where she was sitting with Harry and patted Hollis’ arm comfortingly.

“You’ll live, she likes you.”

“Only on Tuesday and Thursdays, Hermione. It’s a Wednesday and I slept through her class.” Hollis paled at the thought. “I’m dead, tell my parents I loved them.” Hollis flopped dramatically against the table, knocking over a jug of Pumpkin Juice and flipping a basket of rolls over in one smooth motion. The trio started to laugh, and Hollis couldn’t help but join them until McGonagall was behind her and cleared her throat to announce her prescence. 

“Mrs- Erm- Ma’am- uh… hi…” Hollis stuttered out, scratching the back of her neck awkwardly as she turned to face the angry witch. “How’s your day been?”

“It was going just fine until a certain Gryffindor failed to show up to any of their classes, and skipped their meeting with me.”

“Whoa, that is so rude of them. I’m sure they have an amazing excuse.”

“I’m sure you do.” McGonagall said, holding back a small smile at the younger girl’s behavior. “Now up, we’ll need to fit this in before lunch is over.” 

“But Minnie…” Ron burst out laughing at Hollis, and was quickly shut up by two intense glares from both McGonagall and Hollis. 

“ _Now_ , Ms. Walsh. I do not have all day, and some of us cannot just skip their responsibilities at will.” 

“Minnie…”

“Ms. Walsh, now, before I give you a detention for being disrespectful.” 

“Fine. See you guys in potions.” Hollis pouted, snagging a pumpkin juice-soaked roll as she walked away from the mess she’d unintentionally made at the table. The walk from the Great Hall through the school to McGonagall’s office was not long, but it felt like a century as Hollis tried to consume her roll without triggering her gag reflex and causing her Professor to lose any patience that she may still have in her heart for Hollis.

“Sit down.” McGonagall snapped the moment her office door was shut closed. Hollis obeyed, instantly joining her Professor at the desk. McGonagall’s office was an intriguing one to Hollis, full of books that she would never have the patience to read but was sure would be fascinating, and knick knack from the Professor’s travels. “Biscuit?” McGonagall offered a tin to Hollis, who took one unsure of whether she should have or not. 

“Professor, am I in trouble?” 

“Not much more than usual, unless you decide to confess to me about beating up Mr. Goyle for the umpteenth time this month.”

“No, ma’am.”

“Good, then we can begin.” McGonagall took a pause unsure of how to begin tell the young girl what she had to share. “Have you ever heard of the Gallows’ law?”

“No… did I break it? Am I in legal trouble?”

“It’s not that type of law, Ms. Walsh. It’s has to do with Animagus’, I’m honestly surprized that Dumbledore never explained it to you.”

“He wasn’t really that interested in me when he was teaching me, it was more of a get in, fix the problem, get out situation for him. At least that’s how I remember it, and I could totally be wrong.”

“Hmm…” McGonagall seemed to have some choice words for the headmaster at Hollis’ declaration but kept them to herself. “Gallows’ law states that any animagi will experience a ‘siren’s call’ to remain in their animal form forever, the larger the animal the larger the call.”

“So…”

“I’ve heard of former students who remained in their animagus form for over a decade and were able to return to their human form with the help of an incantation, but in that students case their animagus form was rather small.”

“Why does this matter?”

“Hollis, you can stop playing dumb, I know that Poppy told you yesterday that you almost lost yourself.”

“No, I didn’t. I had a migraine, not an identity crisis.” It was lie, both parties knew it. Hollis could remember clearly the temptation she had felt to continue flying forever, she had only turned back because she had promised Harry that she would be cheering for him in the stands.

“Ms. Walsh, falsehoods do not look good on you. Yesterday, Poppy had to force your body to remember itself, your eyes didn’t adapt back smoothly to being human because your body was forgetting how to be human.”

“That’s ridiculous.”

“It’s the truth. If Ms. Scamander hadn’t found you when she did the damage may have become permanent and you could have been blinded for life. Dumbledore should never have let you transform as much as was allowed over these past few days.”

“Look, Minnie—” If looks could kill, Hollis would have dropped dead within seconds. “Professor, with all due respect, what you’re asking of me is ridiculous!”

“I’m not asking.”

“Professor—”

“Hollis, you have been banned from using your Animagus form for the next month.”

“Are you kidding me?” Hollis was up out of her chair in a moment, angrily slamming her hands down on McGonagall’s desk. “No!”

“Sit down, Ms Walsh.” McGonagall didn’t speak again until Hollis had obeyed. “I understand that you are upset—”

“—do you really? Cause you have no idea what you’re asking of me?”

“Have you forgotten who you’re speaking too? Do you forget that I was the one that taught you control? I was the one that stepped in after Dumbledore left you to your own devices. Does that count for nothing?”

“No, but Minnie—”

”—I am your Professor, Hollis. Not your friend. I like to believe that I can be both but that seems it’s impossible since you haven’t mustered up the respect once in this conversation to let me speak.”

“Show you respect?” Hollis sputtered out. “You’re demanding something ridiculous of m—“ Hollis’ tongue was suddenly glued to the top of her mouth. McGonagall put down her wand. 

“Ms Walsh, sit I will not force you too, but I will not remove the jinx from your tongue until you have listened to me thoroughly. Do you understand?” Hollis glared at McGonagall. “Do you understand, Ms Walsh?” 

Hollis nodded, and sat down, crossing her arms, and angrily running her feet over McGonagall’s carpet attempting to run a hole through it. 

“You will remember when you were 8 and first felt the siren call. I remember you coming to me at our next lesson sobbing about how you didn’t want to be a dragon anymore. You were scared, perhaps I did too good a job of comforting you. An animagus’ fear of the siren call keeps them in check, but you have lost that fear. You have gone far too long getting to do as you please without Dumbledore reining you in and that stops now. Until further notice you are not allowed to use your Animagus form,”

Hollis attempted to cut in but her tongue caused her to literally choke on the words. 

“Not because you are being unwise with the form, or because Poppy and I want to spite you, but because no one at this school wants to see Hollis Walsh lose her mind the way that yo—” McGonagall paused for a moment and thought through her words before continuing. “The way so many people are prone to do when they have such large magical forms. Hollis, this gift that you were born with is just one sign of what an exceptional witch you were born to be there’s no doubt in my mind, but even exceptional witches need guidance. Yesterday, you got so close to losing yourself that your body didn’t know how to function in its normal state. If Ms. Scamander hadn’t gotten you to Madam Pomfrey so quickly you could have died Hollis. Your body would have started to shut down and lose its function. Poppy did what she deemed the best possible solution and has decided to place an enchantment on you that will last until your body is truly ready to handle it again in addition, we will restart our lessons in the New Year when you are fully better. Now you may speak.” The moment the jinx was gone Hollis was out of her chair storming away.

“This is ridiculous!” She screamed, slamming McGonagall’s door open with enough force to knock a painting of a boat off the wall. “I hate you!” The door was slammed shut with equal ferocity leaving the Professo1r with quite a mess on her hands.

“You don’t really mean that, Hollis.” McGonagall called after the girl, knowing that her words had been lost to the air she turned her attention to cleaning up the mess Hollis had left behind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyo! Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think in the comments or by leaving kudos! I always love to hear from everyone. What do you want to see in the future? What do you think is happening to Hollis? Have a great weekend! I'll see you all next week! Make sure to bookmark or subscribe in order to know exactly when I upload a new chapter.


	8. Pissed Off Snape, Tearful Hollis

Harry would never understand Severus Snape. The man was a total and complete Grinch sometimes, well really all the time where Harry was involved.

Harry really had tried his best to mind his business during his first Potions class post-task because as Ron had so eloquently put it _: Snape’s gonna be pissed._ The fourth year Gryffindor’s have been passing around a small parchment that Ernie Macmillan had apparently drawn the period before and passed on to Seamus, it featured a rather crude drawing of Snape being blown up by his own cauldron which had all of the Gryffindor’s in quiet stitches.

Unfortunately for the Gryffindor students they were not the most subtle bunch of eggs at Hogwarts and just as the drawing had passed into Harry’s hands Snape had decided to inquire into the quiet chaos that was infiltrating his classroom. He didn’t wait for any of them to explain either before he sent Harry to McGonagall’s with the drawing in question. Snape was a strange man in the fact that some days, rather most days, he would treat Harry like dirt than there would be the occasional day when a small mercy was offered to the boy. Though in this case where proving his own innocence to McGonagall would involve throwing his housemates under the bus he wasn’t sure if this was a mercy or a worse punishment.

As Harry walked, he felt a paradox of emotions inside of himself. Happy that Snape wasn’t the one punishing him, but scared for what McGonagall would do to him instead. His thoughts of how to get out of trouble for something he really didn’t do were interrupted by a girl’s sobs that echoed down the passage way. At first Harry thought it may have been Myrtle, though he had never heard of her wandering out of her bathroom to cry, but as he got closer to the sound, he recognised the voice behind the cries.

“Hollis?” Harry called as he grew close to the classroom. “Is that you?”

“Go away!” Hollis’ voice rang out into the hallway thick with tears and anger.

Harry paused at the doorway and stared into the room, where Hollis had tucked herself into the corner to cry.

“What happened?” Harry stepped forward; Hollis glared at him but didn’t do anything to make him stop. “What did McGonagall do? Are you in trouble?”

“I hate them.” Hollis’ raised her eyes up to Harry’s to reveal tear rimmed red eyes that were beginning to swell. “I hate them so much.”

“What happened?”

“They put some curse on me to stop me from transforming.”

“Whose they? Stop transforming into what?”

“Are you seriously that dumb?” Hollis asked her voice raising to a shout. “Pomfrey and McGonagall put some crackpot curse on me to stop me from using my animagus form.”

“They can do that?”

“Apparently!”

“Why would they do that, Hol? Was it because of yesterday?”

“That’s what they said, but I doubt it’s the truth.” Hollis’ tears returned. “They just used me until it was inconvenient for me to be special anymore.”

“That doesn’t sound like the McGonagall I know at all.” Harry replied attempting to comfort the girl.

“Well, everyone here treats you like you’re untouchable so…”

“That’s not—”

“—how would you know, Harry? Dumbledore practically bows down to you, and half the teachers would let you burn them alive if you asked right. You don’t get what it’s like not to be _the_ Chosen One, the rest of us are just pawns. McGonagall got what she needed out of me and now she’s taken it away and trying to claim it’s for my own safety.”

“Why would she say that if it’s not true, Hol. Think hard, why would she do that?”

“Because…” Hollis paused, struggling to come up with a good enough reason. “I don’t know.” Hot tears split out of her eyes, and angry sobs filled the silence that had spread through the class. Harry stared at the girl helplessly, unsure of whether he should be witnessing this side of her.

“Hollis, should I go get, Nora for you? She probably would now how—”

“NO!” Hollis’ wand was drawn out of the holster she wore on her forearm hiding it from sight in an instant. “She doesn’t know, Harry.”

“What?”

“I was serious when I said barely anyone knows, the only people in my family who knows are my parents and siblings.” Hollis sobbed violently with a hand raised towards Harry, stopping him from getting close.

“But she’s your cousin.”

“And I love her dearly but she is the biggest blabber mouth that you will ever meet. _Ever._ ”

“I won’t tell her.” Harry raised his hands in surrender. “I swear.”

“O—okay.” Hollis visibly relaxed, hand dropping to her side as she let her tears fall freely. “I know that McGonagall is trying to help me, but— but she just took away the thing that makes me, _me._ A-and no one asked me, or told it was coming, they just did it. I didn’t even know they could do that.”

“I didn’t know they could do that either.”

“I didn’t even know, and now it’s gone. I shouldn’t have turned back yesterday. I should have just flown for the hills. I don’t even like being human anyways.”

“You don’t mean that, Hollis.”

“It doesn’t matter now.” Hollis sighed, wiping her face harshly to get the tears off her cheeks. “It doesn’t matter at all, none of it exists to me anyways. Now I’m normal and boring like everyone else.”

“I don’t think you’re boring.” Harry regretted his words the moment they were out into the world, an awkward silence filling the wide space between the two new friends.

“Well that makes me feel _so_ much better.”

Hollis met Harry’s eyes, lips curving into a real grin. Harry couldn’t help but laugh nervously which caused Hollis to laugh, until she was crying again.

“Uh… coffee?” Harry asked, offering Hollis his hand to pull her to her feet.

“Coffee.” She repeated, she hadn’t completely finished crying but as they ran through the halls to avoid the professors, a mixture of their laughter and her tears echoed behind them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey there! if you're enjoying this so far why don't you bookmark or subscribe so that you never miss a new chapter! I hope you're enjoying the story and I would love to hear your thoughts and feedback either through commenting or leaving kudos. Have a great weekend everybody see you next Friday!


	9. It's Strange Having Friends

Slowly but surely Hollis found herself calming down as the days passed and the first task drew further away from her. It was strange, not being able to transform. When she had been able to transform freely, she had underappreciated the skill, now that it was gone, even temporarily, she felt as though a limb had been cut off of her. She missed jumping out of the Gryffindor tower windows when no one was around and transforming in the dark under the stars. She missed the wind on her face and the feeling of fire in her throat.

She missed her normal and the days when Nora wasn’t stopping to ask her if she was okay every time she saw her. Even though the blonde was completely oblivious to what was actually going on with her she was surprisingly observant of the shift in Hollis’ mood. Hollis honestly missed how Theodore, her older brother, used to treat her at school almost ignoring her presence unless they happened to bump into each other. Ever since the First Task he’d been treating her like she was made of glass, checking in with her at every meal he could find her.

Hollis wasn’t even sure how he had found out that Pomfrey had cursed her, Hollis hadn’t told anyone, though she was sure one of the professors would have told her parents. Theo and Hollis weren’t the type of siblings that shared the harder parts of their lives with each other, their relationship was based upon taunting each other in the halls and messing with their older sister, Lucy. It was strange seeing Theo every meal as a Seventh-Year prefect and star Chaser(when Quidditch at Hogwarts was running) for Ravenclaw, Theo was almost always busy with one thing or another but Hollis didn’t mind it. She knew that they would always get enough of each other when the breaks came and they returned home.

Hollis also felt unsettled if she was being honest. Her social life was changing faster than she had ever expected it to, or even knew was possible.

“You doing okay, Hol?” Theo asked, ruffling her hair as he bumped into her where she was sitting at the Gryffindor table.

“I’m fine, Theo. I would ask the same but based on the state of your robes I would assume you’re just as nutty as ever.”

“You’re very rude, you know that right, Hollis?” Theo replied, a playful grin making it’s way across his face causing his blue eyes to shine brightly in the sunlight that filled with Great Hall.

“Takes one, to know one.” Hollis retorted, sticking her tongue out at her brother who turned on his heel with a laugh and headed back to the Ravenclaw table where his friends were waiting impatiently for him.

“That made absolutely no sense, Hollis.” Ron commented as Hollis turned her attention back to the people surrounding her at her own table.

“You make no sense.”

“Now see that was better.” Hermione praised as she poked Hollis in the ribs with her elbow.

“Watch yourself there, Granger, I might hex you.”

“You would be down before you could draw your wand, Hol. Let’s be realistic.” Harry tossed in; a smile pasted across his face as the brunette struggled to reply without digging herself into a deeper hole.

“Neville, how was your day?” Hollis asked, pointedly ignoring the trio who were all a little too proud of themselves for their comments.

“Fine, Hollis, pass the string beans would ya?” Hollis passed them to the Gryffindor who was seated to her right. “How’s your day been?”

“Nearly lost my eyebrows in potions but other than that I have nothing to complain about.”

“Oh! Hollis, that reminds me, did you get your essay back from Snape yet?” Hermione questioned, poking her friend in the ribs purposefully to regain her attention.

“Ow!” Hollis rubbed her side dramatically. “No, Snape’s being a prat per usual and keeps putting off handing them back.”

“Let me know when you do, I’m excited to see how you did.”

“You mean how you did ‘Mione.” Harry replied cheekily, causing Ron and Hermione to laugh while Harry ducked as Hollis hucked one of her abandoned bread crusts at his head. The crust missed him by a long shot clearing the Gryffindor table and hitting a random Hufflepuff in the back of the head. Hollis pointed at Ron when the Hufflepuff turned to glare at them. Ron sputtered in anger and embarrassment, his laugh cut short as he debated whether or not to pelt Hollis with a spoonful of his mash potatoes.

That was the other thing that was also off-putting to Hollis: she had friends in Gryffindor house now. While she had never been out right hated by her house, she had also never been included like she was now. Becoming friends with the Gryffindor’s golden boy had been a gateway into friendly relations with the rest of her house. Hollis was sure that Harry was completely oblivious to it, but within a week of them talking to each other daily, spending her meals and free time with him, Hermione and Ron the entire house dynamic around her had shifted now she had lower year housemates who wanted to know her and upper year house mates who seemed to have forgotten that she had a history of being friendly with the Slytherin house. She had people who had never spoken to her before asking her how her day was, or smiling when they passed her in the hall. She hadn’t eaten at the Slytherin table in almost a week feeling completely comfortable at her own table surrounded by people who she enjoyed being around. It surprised her honestly, she had thought that Harry and his friends were completely different from what she had discovered them to be.

Hermione, for example, had shocked her with her kindness and humor. From afar Hermione had seemed like a little bit of a bitch to Hollis, a know it all that didn’t care for others. While Hollis didn’t get along the best with her other three dorm mates and wouldn’t necessarily call them friends, Hollis had at least spoke to them consistently for the last four years while Hermione barely ever did. The bushy haired girl spent most of her time outside of the dorm with Harry and Ron, coming in late and leaving early in the morning. When Hollis had first worked with Hermione to help Harry, she had thought that this was all there was to Hermione but now as they got used to each other Hollis couldn’t help but love the other girl a great deal. Hermione may have been a know-it-all but she was kind and willing to help, especially if you weren’t Harry or Ron who had ground the girls nerves down after four years. She was also one of the most passionate people Hollis had ever met, Hollis watched her raise money for S.P.E.W. and research until her eyes couldn’t open. While Hollis may not agree that the elves wanted to be freed and paid, she could appreciate Hermione’s passion and had chipped in a sickle or two (or ten but that was Hollis’ way of silently bribing Hermione into helping Hollis with potions).

Hollis also found Hermione hilarious. The girl was always muttering sarcastic comments under her breath, usually directed towards Malfoy and his gang or the boys. From what Hollis could tell the boys were completely oblivious to it and were common targets for her comments at least when Hollis was in ear shot.

Hollis enjoyed spending time with the other girl and had actually dragged Hermione away from the boys during one of their Potions lessons to sit with Nora and Prince, which had ended up being a massive mistake that she never repeated, instead splitting her time evenly between her cousin and the trio who seemed to legitimately want her around. Hermione and Prince, had far too much fun teasing and taunting each other and the muttered comments had increased, as Hermione grew more and more frustrated by the Slytherin boy who refused to stand down. Hollis had accidentally laughed loudly twice that class and had been given a detention for her disruption while Hermione tried to hold back a smile. Both Harry and Ron had been confused what had happened, when neither girl would explain they had just shrugged it off and continued with their day.

As the one week turned into two, Hollis found herself growing closer to the trio and while she wouldn’t have considered herself a member of the tight knit friend group, she considered all of them people she trusted. And as November turned to December Hollis found herself spending less and less time with Nora and more time with the three Gryffindors. She enjoyed herself with them, they were nice to her but also let her unwind and be herself. They made it easy to forget about her situation and feel like she was normal. Their friendship was something she hadn’t anticipated but now that she had it, she never wanted to lose it.

Hollis found herself leaning on Harry for support far more than she expected. He was ther only friend that knew about her gift and what Pomfrey had done to her and he took it upon himself to check in with her, leading the two to spend hours talking in private. And while she leaned on Harry for support, he leaned on her. She made herself a safe space for Harry to share his nerves about the tournament and rant about his life without unloading on Ron or Hermione who both had a habit of pointing out the good things and ignoring the bad that were starting to overwhelm their friend. They found that with each other they were able to share what they were feeling without judgement, mostly because if one of them told the others secrets, they would soon find themselves on the wrong side of the others wand about to be jinxed into tomorrow. Hollis soon found that every time she left a daily check-up with Pomfrey, Harry would be waiting for her with either a trip to the kitchens or another distraction planned. They spent a lot of time poking around in the furthest corners of the castle finding quiet little nooks to talk or study.

His friendship was the only one that Hollis felt truly secure in. She enjoyed being with Hermione and Ron when she was around them, but there was always a little voice in the back of her mind that told her that they only permitted her near them because of Harry. She knew that it was irrational especially when Ron had taken to tracking her down in the evenings to play chess or cards with, and Hermione would curl up beside her on one of the couches to read while Hollis did her homework in the common room. Both of them went out of their way to show that they wanted her around but that voice was unrelentless.

It was strange, having friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading, and sorry for the late update! I hope you're enjoying The Probability of Falling so far and if you are please feel free to like and comment so I can know! Have a great week, see you Friday!


	10. A Ball and Potions

If there were two things that Ron and Hollis could agree about no matter what, it was that Transfiguration was confusing and wizarding chess was vastly superior to any other game available in the common room. So, both of them had shared a confused but cheerful look when Professor McGonagall stopped her class a few minutes early for an important announcement.

“The Yule Ball is fast approaching — a traditional part of the Triwizard Tournament and an opportunity for us to socialize with our foreign guests. Now, the ball will be only be open to fourth years and up— though you can invite a younger student if you wish.”

Lavender Brown let out a shrill giggle. Parvati Patil nudged her hard in the ribs, her face working furiously as she, too fought not to giggle. Hermione and Hollis exchanged a look as their dormmates stared at Harry who was sitting there showing no signs of recognising what was going on.

“Dress robes will be worn.” Professor McGonagall continued, “and the ball will start at eight o’clock on Christmas Day, finishing at midnight in the Great Hall. Now then—” McGonagall stared down the room deliberately, eyes scanning over each and every student and landing on Hollis for an extra second. “The Yule Ball is of course a chance for us all to — er — let our hair down. But that does NOT mean, that we will be relaxing the standards of behavior we expect from Hogwarts students. I will be most seriously displeased if a Gryffindor student embarrasses the school in any way.”

The bell rang and the class was up and out the door. Hollis shoved her notes into her textbook and the entire package into her bag which was a complete mess to the outside but to her it was the most organised part of her life. As she got up to head to her next class with the trio Hollis heard Harry get called back by McGonagall. She gave Harry a look of pity as he passed by her but didn’t stop to wait for him outside the door like Ron and Hermione. While the trio had Care of Magical Creatures to get to (where the professor loved them and would turn a blind eye to them being late) Hollis had her remedial potions class and if she wasn’t across the castle and in the dungeons in two minutes flat, Snape would have her head.

Unfortunately for Hollis, the second bell that signaled the beginning of class rang as she rushed through the potion’s classroom door.

“Five points from Gryffindor.” Snape called as Hollis rushed to the only open seat with a group of fourth and fifth year Hufflepuffs.

“But—” Hollis sat down with a thud.

“An additional five points, Ms. Walsh.” Hollis was about to protest when one of the Hufflepuffs grabbed her hand and shook her head at Hollis.

“It’s not worth it.” It was Alessandra Scamander, the same girl that had helped Hollis get to Pomfrey the day of the task. “Fourth years are on page 84 today.” Hollis wasn’t sure why Alessandra was talking to her; they hadn’t spoken since the First Task even though they had had multiple classes since.

“Thanks.” Per usual Snape was not instructing the class instead expecting them to figure it out on their own, defeating the entire point of the remedial class. She flipped open her book and began to gather her materials to create a Calming Draught. The last time she had tried to make one, nearly a month earlier, her potion had ended up exploding and earning her an overnight stay in the infirmary followed by a weekend of detentions clearing out one of the older dungeon classrooms so that it could be turned into a study space. Potions and Hollis just didn’t get along, it didn’t matter if she studied for days before each potion and paid attention to every single minute detail it always went wrong at one or another.

With shaky hands Hollis began to mince her lavender, the aroma of it mixing nicely with the scent of whatever potion Alessandra had been assigned to work on. Hollis couldn’t help but feel jealous as she watched the Hufflepuff work out of the corner of her eye. Alessandra had a calmness and precision about her that Hollis knew she would never be able to match, and as the Hufflepuff moved gracefully through the classroom, dancing through her potion making Hollis spent less attention on her assignment and more on Alessandra’s work.

“Could you pass me a spare sprig of Lavender if you have one?” Hollis jumped in surprise; Alessandra was looking up at her with a small smile on her face.

“Pardon?”

“Could I borrow a spare sprig of lavender.”

“Sure.” Hollis passed it her.

“If you’re going to finish in time, you’re going to have to at least let your cauldron heat up.”

“Sorry?”

“Your fire, it’s not going to do much.” Hollis looked down, Alessandra was right, Hollis had lit her fire at the beginning of the work period but hadn’t paid much attention to it afterwards and it had died down to barely the size of a candle wick. “Here, let me.” Alessandra flicked her wand at the flame and it grew suddenly, the liquid base in her cauldron began to boil almost immediately. “Would you like some help?” Normally Hollis would have snapped if anybody asked the question, but Alessandra said it with such a sweet smile on her face that Hollis just nodded. “Here, give me one moment.” The older girl flicked her wand at her own cauldron vanishing the contents of it.

“Wait, you don’t hav— but your potion…” Hollis couldn’t believe that the fifth year would get rid of all her work without a second thought. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be silly, why would you apologize? I had no clue what I was doing, you saved me from wasting supplies.”

“But, you… you looked like you were doing everything right. Your potion lookd so much better than theirs.” Hollis nodded towards the other two students seated at their table, neither appreciated the comment and their eyes made sure that Hollis knew that.

“I’m working on a new type of Polyjuice Potion as extra credit for Professor Snape. I was just mucking about and wasting supplies, besides you needed help.”

“Oh, uh… thanks.” Hollis stepped to the side and allowed Alessandra to step beside her. Alessandra pulled her long curls behind her head tying them with a ribbon that she had kept around her wrist.

“Now, the key is going to be reading between the lines. It’s hard for the first few potions but once you get the hang of it, you’ll be a potion making whiz!” Hollis watched and assisted Alessandra in making the draught surprised by how much she was learning in just a few short minutes from the older girl. When the bell released them from the potion’s classroom Hollis felt like she had actually learned something in that room for the first time since her second year when she had started to fall behind.

“I can help you next class, as long as you agree to help me shred my moon-picked lemon grass the week after.” Alessandra offered as the two rushed out of the class side-by-side.

“Mandy!” A girl screamed down the hall, barrelling towards Hollis and Alessandra who had turned towards the source of the noise. “We’re going to be late!”

“Lyla, we have a break.” Alessandra replied with a laugh as the girl skidded to a stop in front of them.

“And I intend to get all 50 precious minutes in full especially since you barely see me anymore all caught up with Diggo—.” The Hufflepuff replied. “Oh, who’s this?”

“This is Hollis, she takes extra potions with me.”

“Another genius then?” Lyla asked, offering her hand to Hollis.

“We—” Alessandra looked like she wasn’t quite sure what to say.

“Oh, no I suck.” Hollis cut in, taking Lyla’s hand and relieving Alessandra from trying to politely tell her friend that Hollis was about as talented in potions as a troll is at gardening.

“I’m Lyla Harris, nice to meet you, Hollis.”

“Nice to meet you too.”

“Now I apologize because this might seem rude, but I’m going to drag Mandy here away from you.”

“Uh…” They were gone, Lyla had towed Alessandra half way up the hall before Hollis could react. “No problem…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Would love to hear from you via. comments or kudos! If you want to be emailed or notified when I upload next add a bookmark or subscribe! See you Friday!


	11. this could be embarrassing

Hollis found it even more entertaining to eat her meals at the Gryffindor table now that the Yule Ball had been announced. Already there were third years trying to bribe their friends in upper years to invite them, and if Hollis wasn’t mistaken four girls had been asked out with in the same 20 minute time span and while that alone was fun to watch it was even more fun to watch the boys squirm as girls eyed them up while they ate.

“How on earth are you supposed to ask a girl out?” Ron asked, avoiding the classes he was receiving from the girls surrounding him. Hollis laughed as she saw him blush, it seems funny to her when just last week he had been the one glancing at them.

“You’re being overdramatic Ron” Holly said rolling her eyes. “You to Harry, you can stop laughing now.” The other boy’s laughter died in his throat as Hollis called him out for laughing at his friend who is a similar situation to himself. “you’re both being overdramatic. You do know any girl you ask will say yes right?”

Hermione snorted from beside Hollis who elbowed her in the ribs in response.

“You’re not helping.”

“I’m not trying to.” Hermione replied, rolling her eyes and standing up, her meal already finished. “I’ll see you guys in class.”

#### “Where are _you_ going? Ron asked.

#### “The library.” Hermione said already walking away from them.

#### “Of course, you are.” Ron mumbled under his breath; Harry laughed at the comment.

#### “Back to the ball though, it’s really not _that_ hard.” Hollis said. “Find a cute girl, ask her out, repeat until you find someone.”

#### “You’re mental.” Harry mumbled.

#### “What’s that?”

#### “I don’t see you asking anyone out.” Harry said, laughing at the look on Hollis face at his comment.

#### “I’m not supposed to. Have you never watched a romance movie?”

#### “Bit sexist don’t you think.” Responded Ron, jumping onto whatever bandwagon Harry had hopped onto.

#### “What are you two on?” Hollis asked, reaching around Neville who had the closest pot of coffee beside him.

#### “I think you should go ask someone out.”

#### “I’m not a lesbian idiot.”

#### “No, a guy.” Harry replied as if it was obvious.

#### “A guy of _our_ choice.” Ron tagged on, exchanging a devious smile with Harry. Hollis looked between the two boys before avoiding their gazes and focusing her attention on the people around her.

#### “How was your day Neville?”

#### “Uh… fine, yours?” Neville replied, visibly confused why she had interrupted his conversation with a sixth year Hollis didn’t recognize about Herbology.

#### “Just peachy.” Hollis smiled at the other Gryffindor who turned back to his conversation leaving Hollis on her own.

#### “I think you should do it.”

#### Hollis whipped around to see Ginny Weasley who grinned at her cheekily. _Traitor_. Hollis mouthed towards her but Ginny just laughed and moved to sit beside her.

#### “You’ve been trying to talk them into this for like 12 hours but you’re not willing to do it yourself, don’t you think that’s a little hypocritical.”

#### “I’m going to kill you Weasley,” Hollis growled as the boys started scanning the room for a target.

#### “You couldn’t if you tried.” Ginny replied throwing an arm around her shoulder and side hugging her tightly.

#### “You’d be surprized.” Harry commented, laughing again as Hollis kicked him under the table.

#### “Him.” Ron pointed towards the Ravenclaw table to a group of sixth year boys. He was very obviously pointing at the tallest of them. There was no easier way to say it, he was incredibly fit.

#### “Are you mental?”

#### “ _You’re_ the one who said it was easy.”

#### “For you two, not for me.” Hollis picked a piece of pie crust off of her plate and hucked it at the two, it missed by a longshot and flew towards the Hufflepuff table, knocking into the back of a random kid’s head. When they turned around to look at who had done it, Hollis was already pointing at Ron who glared at her but still mouthed an apology at them.

#### “What did Ron do this time?” One of the twins asked, they had been walking behind Hollis causing her to jump at their sudden appearance.

#### “Hitting another student, mom would be so disappointed.” The other added, Ron blushed hard and turned to face the duo who were grinning down at him in a way that all the Weasley seemingly were able to do.

#### “Tell Hollis she’s being a chicken.” Ron ordered them; Hollis groaned.

#### “Kill me now.”

#### “Hollis you’re a chicken.” They said in unison, Hollis turned to glare at them.

#### “Tell Ron and Harry they’re the real chickens here.”

#### “Ron and Harry, you’re the real chickens here.” They repeated again in unison.

#### “You’re all a bunch of chickens.” Ginny said, “Do it Hollis.”

#### “Do what?” Lee Jordan asked, he had paused to wait for the twins but now seemed interested.

#### “Ask that guy to the ball.” Harry said, pointing to the boy.

#### “Since it would be _so_ easy.” Ron added on.

#### “I’m not going to—”

#### “—5 sickles she won’t do it.” The twin on the right said to the one on the left.

#### “10, she will and he’ll say yes.” The other replied.

#### “I’ll take that action Georgie.” The right twin, most likely Fred replied shaking his hand over her head.

#### “Don—”

#### “Now you have to.” George said leaning down on the table to make eye contact with her. “Wouldn’t want me to lose my money.”

#### “You have money again?” Ron asked, five glares were quickly pointed at him.

“Shut it.” Fred said, he leaned down on the table to mirror his brother, shoving Ginny to the side to make room for himself. “There’s no shame in walking away, Hollis. Perfectly respectable.”

“But you’d always be a chicken in my heart,” George added, Lee snorted from behind him.

“Fred didn’t you sneak hiccup solution into her pumpkin juice last week?” Ginny asked, trying to force Hollis to make George win.

“Ugh!” Hollis stood up, slamming her hands against the table, making all six of them jump. “This is what happens when Hermione doesn’t give you two enough attention.” She gestured between Harry and Ron who were both grinning up at her.

She walked from the Gryffindor table towards the Ravenclaw table feeling like she was about to pass out. This was a stupid thing to be scared of, but to be fair Hollis was not good at meeting new people, as shown by her only having two friends for the past three years of school one of which being her cousin and the other being her cousin’s best friend. The boy luckily was cute, he looked like he was tall and he had good features, but that made it worse. _He probably already has a date!_ Hollis panicked as she got the farthest end of the Ravenclaw table from him.

Hollis didn’t let herself stop moving, otherwise she would have frozen and the entire school would see her there frozen in place. She glanced to the Gryffindor table, Lee had taken her place between the twins who had shoved two students aside to sit down and watch her. Harry grinned at her, she glared back, and gave her a big thumbs up. Ron was trying not to laugh, but it was very clear from across the hall that he was failing to contain himself. Ginny smiled and gave her an encouraging nod, Hollis turned back and focused on the boy.

“Hollis, do you need something?” Theo asked, Hollis cursed in her head. She should have waited to do this at a time when her brother was present to snitch on her to their parents.

“No, I’m good.” She replied, she was five people away from the boy, then four, three, two, one. “Hi.”

He turned to face her and gave her a smile.

“Does McGonagall need me?” He asked, he had a nice voice, nodding towards her Gryffindor robes.

“Uh…” Hollis took a deep breath. “This is so embarrassing but my friends dared me to ask you to the ball.”

“Oh?” His friends laughed around him, one of the girls nearby very pointedly glared at Hollis.

“And I don’t know you at all, and I know it’s weird, but is there any chance that you don’t have a date already? It would just be like as friends or platonic or whatever and like no pressure but the Twins bet on me and I really don’t want Fred to win.”

“I’m Alex.” He replied with a laugh, Hollis was caught off guard for a moment as he offered her his hand. “And you are…”

“Oh! I’m Hollis.” She shook his hand, internally she was freaking out, what was happening?

“Well Hollis, now that we know each other, I would love to go with you.”

“Oh, that’s fi— you would?”

“Sure, takes the pressure off me, plus Fred jinxed Harriet,” he nodded towards the girl who had glared at Hollis, she smiled coldly at her and didn’t say a word. “last week and there’s no way that I would want him to win either.”

“Well, thanks!” Hollis went to walk away but he stopped her.

“Wait!” Alex called. “Owl me later okay? We’ll work out the details.

“Okay.” Hollis said with a smile, she walked away quickly past Theo who was looking at her like she had grown a second head. She ignored him and rushed back towards the Gryffindor table. As she reached them, Ron and Harry slid apart to let her in between them. While some people had left lunch early like Hermione most were still sticking around leaving the table crowded and full of eavesdroppers.

“Well?” One of the twins asked, she was pretty sure it was George. “What’d he say?”

“He said yes.”

“Really?” Hollis kicked Ron’s leg under the table, it wasn’t even hard because of the weird angle she had to do it from but the ginger milked it, groaning in pain.

“Was that supposed to not sound offensive?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Make sure to leave comments and kudos if you liked it, I love to hear from you! If you want to get an email every time I publish a new chapter(usually Fridays) you can bookmark or subscribe! See y'all next week, stay safe and healthy. xo ~ queenie


	12. A Tiny Fight

"Have been experiencing any headaches, muscle aches or fatigue recently?" Pomfrey asked Hollis as she slowly passed her wand over her, where ever her wand floated over Hollis' skin glowed blue.

"I've been tired, but that's mostly because I've had to stay up later than normal to study." Hollis replied honestly, when she had first started these checkups with Pomfrey she had had a painful headache almost every day, but she had lied thinking that that would get her out of these appointments faster and back to transforming. That had lasted for 3 days until she had had a full-on migraine and Harry had forced her to go to the Infirmary for a potion.

"That's a good sign of progress." Pomfrey encouraged as she finished up her check. "You're free to go after you take this." Hollis took that potion that Pomfrey offered her and downed it in one go, it was vile and had the texture of snot which made Hollis want to throw up. Luckily (or unluckily) for her, the potion was charmed to stay down once it made its way into her stomach.

Hollis shivered as the potion settled inside her making her feel warm for a moment. "Any chance you have some dementor chocolate kicking around?"

"Not today, Ms. Walsh. Head off, I have other students to see tonight."

"Fine." Hollis said, jumping off the bed and rushing towards the door. "See you tomorrow Pomfrey!"

"Have a good night, Hollis."

Hollis rushed through the door, and turned to face where Harry normally would-be standing waiting for her.

He wasn't there.

Her heart sunk, it was happening, he was moving on just like she had always knew he would.

"No, be rational," Hollis whispered to herself as she headed towards the common room to retrieve her bag. "He probably forgot or couldn't make it in time, the appointment was longer than usually maybe he thought I was going to stay overnight."

She rushed through the castle, dodging around the student who were still in the halls. December was well underway and most students had either huddled into their common rooms, where all the heat was, or were outside in the snow. Hollis ducked through the common room passage

"Oi! Angelina!" One of the twins yelled as Hollis entered. Their voice carried over the entire buzz of the common space.

"What?" Angelina called back. Hollis went to join her friends by the fire. Hermione looked like the boys had said something stupid when she plopped down on the couch beside her.

"What's going on?" She whispered to the brunette.

"Want to come to the ball with me?" Angelina gave Fred an appraising sort of look.

"The boys are freaking out about the ball again." Hermione whispered back, she looked like she was growing more and more mad with each passing second.

"What's wrong?" Hollis asked her, but Hermione just shook her head and whispered back that it wasn't important.

"All right, then," Angelina replied, she turned back to Alicia and carried on chatting with a bit of a grin on her face.

"There you go," said Fred to Harry and Ron, "piece of cake."

He got to his feet, yawning, and said, "We'd better use a school owl then, George, come on..."

They left. Ron looked across a smoldering wreck of what might have once been a card castle at Harry.

"We should get a move on, you know . . . ask someone. He's right. We don't want to end up with a pair of trolls." Hermione let out a sputter of indignation and Hollis couldn't help but match her emotion.

"A pair of . . . what, excuse me?"

"Well — you know," said Ron, shrugging. "I'd rather go alone than with — with Eloise Midgen, say."

"That's so rude!" Hollis glared at Ron who looked back at her indignantly.

"Her acne's loads better lately — and she's really nice!"

"Her nose is off-centre," said Ron.

"Oh, I see," Hermione said, bristling. "So basically, you're going to take the best-looking girl who'll have you, even if she's completely horrible?"

"Er — yeah, that sounds about right," said Ron.

"I'm going to bed," Hermione snapped, and she swept off toward the girls' staircase without another word.

"That was really shallow, Ron." Hollis glared at the ginger; Harry shoved her bag from where it was stored beside his chair towards her but she ignored it.

"What would you know, Hollis? You don't even know us." Ron got up from where he was sitting. "I'm going up for the night, see you later Harry."

Hollis stared at his back as he walked up the back, part of her was pissed ready to jinx them and the other part wanted to cry. _What was with the past month and crying?_

"Well..." Harry stood up to, and Hollis felt herself start to panic, thinking he was going to follow Ron up the stairs. "That was a lot." He sat down beside Hollis on the couch, she couldn't stop herself from smiling as she twisted herself so that she was sitting facing him rather than the fire. "Sorry, I meant to be there when you finished but Ron wanted to know where I kept going off to and I figured it was better to stay than to try to come up with a lie."

"No, it's fine." Hollis replied, lightly. It hadn't felt fine in the moment but now that she was mad at Ron she was focused on bigger things. "So, you need a date?"

"Yeah." Harry stared at his hands, obviously uncomfortable with the whole thing.

"Any ideas of who to ask?" Hollis was trying to be helpful, but it felt like a stupid thing to ask.

"Well, I was thinking maybe I'd ask Cho?"

"Cho? I don't think I know her."

"She's the seeker for the Ravenclaw team."

"Oh, her," Hollis couldn't think of who he was talking about. "She's... nice, I think."

"But maybe if she said no, we could go together?" Harry asked, Hollis froze. "As friends, I mean, the champions have to open the ball with a partner dance and I'm going to look like an idiot if I don't have anyone to dance with."

"Two problems," Hollis said carefully. "One, I can't dance and two, I have a date remember? You sort of forced me to ask Alex."

"Shoot, I forgot about that." Harry groaned leaning his head onto the back of the couch. "Alex?"

"His name is Alex."

"Right! Yeah, that makes sense... that he'd have a name." Harry had a weird look on his face. Hollis pulled her hair back into a ponytail and grabbed her bag from the floor where she'd abandoned it.

"Well... on that note. I'm going to go see if Hermione's still awake to help me with Potions homework. Owl me if you need something tonight, yeah?"

"Sure." Harry replied standing. "I should go make sure Ron isn't making voodoo dolls up there."

"He knows how to do that?" Hollis didn't like the idea of Ron trying to curse her or Hermione via. Magical doll.

"No, but last time him and Hermione fought Seamus lent him a book on magical revenge, like an idiot and I'm not sure what Ron will do."

"They'll make up soon right?"

"They'll be fine in the morning; this happens a lot."

"Good." Hollis got up. "Night, Harry."

"Night Hol." Harry walked her to the girl's dormitory stairs. "You know he didn't mean it how he said it right?"

"Sorry?" Hollis asked, she was already a few stairs up but she stopped to listen.

"I know that that hurt you, what he said I mean, I saw your face after. But he didn't mean it the way he said it. He really does like you, thinks you're really cool, he was just pissed at Hermione and took it out on you."

"Oh, that's nice to know." Hollis replied, her heart lightening a little in her chest. "Night, Potter." Harry laughed as she slipped a little on the next stair.

"Night, Walsh."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! I hope everyone has had a good week! Please let me know what you think of PoF via the kudos or comments(I love to hear from you guys)! See you next Friday(though you might want to subscribe or bookmark so that you get a notification when I upload next)! ~ xo Queenie


	13. With Who?

Hollis was hiding out in the common room the next evening skipping supper to avoid any pissed off Malfoy worshipers that may have been waiting in the Great Hall to get revenge when she heard what sounded like Harry comforting a shell-shocked Ron. Hollis tried to stay away, she really did, but her curiosity got the better of her and she made her way over to them.

"What's wrong with him?" Hollis asked, plopping down on the floor beside Harry's leg due to the lack of empty chairs.

"He asked out Fleur."

"The Beauxbaton champion? Seriously?"

"Gee, what a load of compassion Hol," Ginny said sharply, though her eyes did show that she thought it _was_ a little funny.

She looked at me like I was a sea slug or something. Didn't even answer. And then — I dunno — I just sort of came to my senses and ran for it."

"She's part veela," said Harry.

"You were right — her grandmother was one. It wasn't your fault, I bet you just walked past when she was turning on the old charm for Diggory and got a blast of it — but she was wasting her time. He's going with Cho Chang." Ron looked up. "I asked her to go with me just now," Harry said dully, "and she told me."

Ginny had suddenly stopped smiling and Hollis gave her a curious look that she refused to respond to.

"This is mad," said Ron. "We're the only ones left who haven't got anyone — well, except Neville. Hey — guess who he asked? Hermione!"

"What?" said Harry, completely distracted by this startling news. He looked down at Hollis who shrugged, Neville was nice enough in all honesty even if he wasn't the most charming boy at Hogwarts.

"Yeah, I know!" said Ron, some of the color coming back into his face as he started to laugh. "He told me after Potions! Said she's always been really nice, helping him out with work and stuff — but she told him she was already going with someone. Ha! As if! She just didn't want to go with Neville . . . I mean, who would?"

"Don't!" said Ginny, annoyed. "Don't laugh —" Just then Hermione climbed in through the portrait hole.

"Why weren't you three at dinner?" she said, coming over to join them.

"Because — oh shut up laughing, you two — because they've both just been turned down by girls they asked to the ball!" said Ginny.

Both Harry and Ron stopped laughing.

"Thanks a bunch, Ginny," said Ron sourly.

"All the good-looking ones taken, Ron?" said Hermione loftily. "Eloise Midgen starting to look quite pretty now, is she? Well, I'm sure you'll find someone somewhere who'll have you." But Ron was staring at Hermione as though suddenly seeing her in a whole new light.

"Hermione, Neville's right — you are a girl. . . ."

"Oh well spotted," she said acidly. "Well — you can come with one of us!" 

"No, I can't," snapped Hermione.

"Oh come on," he said impatiently, "we need partners, we're going to look really stupid if we haven't got any, everyone else has . . ."

"I can't come with you," said Hermione, now blushing, "because I'm already going with someone."

"No, you're not!" said Ron. "You just said that to get rid of Neville!"

"Oh did I?" said Hermione, and her eyes flashed dangerously. "Just because it's taken you three years to notice, Ron, doesn't mean no one else has spotted I'm a girl!"

Ron stared at her. Then he grinned again. "Okay, okay, we know you're a girl," he said. "That do? Will you come now?"

"I've already told you!" Hermione said very angrily. "I'm going with someone else!" And she stormed off toward the girls' dormitories again.

"Hollis can you—" Harry started but Hollis was already on her feet to go find her friend.

"Hermione? Are you up here?" Hollis called as she walked into their dormitory. The other girl was angrily rummaging through her trunk, tossing clothes and books onto her bed.

"He can be so... so..."

"Annoying?"

"Infuriating, sometimes!" Hermione seemed to have reached the bottom of her trunk and began to throw her things back in.

"Who can be?"

"Ron... Harry... Both! Ugh!" Hermione abandoned her task to flop down on her partially empty bed. "They just don't seem to understand that I'm a girl."

"I'm sure they know you're a girl." Hollis put in trying to soothe the angry Gryffindor. "You don't share a dorm with them for one thing."

"Wow, you're hilarious." Hermione stated dryly. " _Real_ comedian."

Hollis didn't reply. Hermione was obviously on the verge of blowing up and she didn't exactly want to be the target of the witch's anger.

"It's just. For years, _years_ Hollis, I've had only two friends; Harry and Ron. And I love them, really truly I do but they're just so..."

"Infuriating?"

"Stupid!" Hermione sat down on her bed in a huff. "They know that girls exist, they know _you're_ a girl. But to them I'm just a brain! And yes, it's nice not to have to pretend to be dumb around them but I don't want to just be a brain! I'm a girl too, and for them to... to judge all these girls to my face and then for Ronald to just, just add me into the lot as only a slightly better option! It makes me want to scream!"

"Then scream." Hollis' words stunned Hermione momentarily.

"Scream?"

"Yes, my mum says it's important to fully express oneself and their emotions."

"You want me to scream? Here? In the dorm?"

"Yes."

"Ah!" Hermione let out a little shout that sounded more like a duck being sat on than a lioness letting out her rage.

"Try again, 'Mione." Hollis said, barely keeping in her laughter at Hermione's awkward attempt.

Hermione obeyed, this time performing slightly better but not up to Hollis' standards. Before she could begin her third attempt the girls were interrupted by Lavender who appeared to have just come from the shower, her long curls were lying damp and heavy against her shirt forming spots of water where ever her hair touched. Lavender seemed quite confused by

"Are you two alright?" Lavender asked as she sat down at the vanity shared by the Fourth Year Gryffindor girls.

"Yeah, yeah, just expressing ourselves."

"Oh," Lavender seemed to be confused. "Because it sounded like someone was rather aggressively squeezing one of Crookshanks' squeaking mice."

Hollis and Hermione shared a look of annoyance over the head of the other girl.

"Lav," Hollis began and Lavender stopped drying and straightening her hair with her wand. "Do you think it might be possible for me and Hermione to have the dorm to ourselves for a little bit?"

"Of course." Lavender continued to do her hair, oblivious to the other girl's frustrated stares. Hermione cleared her throat and nodded her head towards the door. "Oh, now! I guess I can go, but if my hair ends up looking terrible, I'm going to blame it on you two hogging the mirror." Lavender flounced out the door and Hollis couldn't contain her giggles at the sight of her half straightened, half slightly dried frizzy curls.

"Hollis, don't be mean." Hermione started to chide the other girl but ended up giggling herself. "No more yelling for me, the moods been ruined."

"Fair enough. Hey! My mum sent me some Animal Crackers in the mail, do you want one?"

"Sure." Hollis went to rummage in her trunk for the magical snack but stopped when Hermione nervously added. "Hollis, can you keep a secret?"

"Better than you could imagine."

"I already have a date. That's partially why the boys got under my skin so much."

"Really?! With who?"

Hermione mumbled something Hollis couldn't hear.

"Come again?"

"Viktor Krum."

"Woah."

"Yeah."

"How'd that happen? No offense 'Mione but I don't really see you as someone who would float in the same circles as him."

"I don't." Hermione blushed. "Turns out the reason he kept on coming to the Library was to work up the courage to talk to me."

"Aw," Hollis cooed. "That's cute."

"But I think I made a mistake! I've never been to a dance, I have a dress, but no clue what to do! How am I supposed to do my hair or makeup? I've never even worn lip gloss, except for that time that Lavender charmed it onto me while I was sleeping. My mom never taught me anything because I never showed any interest but now, I really regret it. If he was just some random Gryffindor I wouldn't care that much, but everyone will see us together and stare at us. He's a Quidditch star and one of the champions, and I'm just... _me_."

"You're not _just_ you, Hermione. You're the smartest witch in our year, and you've been keeping Ron and Harry alive for years. Without you Harry would have died facing that dragon if he even managed to make it this far. You're a lot more than you think." Hollis paused for a moment to think. "Let me help you!"

"Really, you'd want to!"

"Of course, I mean I'm not any good at makeup but I know some good hair charms. _And!_ Me and Nora are going to Hogsmeade tomorrow to meet up with my sister, she's going to apparate us to Diagon Alley to get dresses." Hermione crinkled her nose at the not quite rule breaking plan. "You can come with if you want, Lucy knows like everything there is to know about parties she could give you some tips. And! My cousin Nora is really good at makeup and she already said she would help me. I'm sure she would help you!"

"But won't Nora want nothing to do with me seeing as I'm-"

"Nora doesn't care about that. She may be in Slytherin but she's not an elitist. If it makes you feel more comfortable, her mum's a muggleborn."

"Oh... well then!" Hermione fell back to lie down on her bed. "I'm kind of excited now!"

"Me too! We're going to knock those boy's socks off." Hollis added the last part as more of an afterthought to herself than to Hermione.

"What was that?"

"Nothing important, just planning some revenge-slash-poetic-justice."

"Uh... okay then..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hello everyone! Just wanted to remind everyone that this is a slowburn fic, though we will be getting a little bit of Hallis? Horry? idk what their ship will be during the ball. Also! I'm going to start posting on Monday's instead of Fridays so that I can use the weekends to write new chapters and edit instead of writing throughout the school week!
> 
> As always I would love to hear from you by the way of kudos or comments! Make sure to subscribe or bookmark so that you get notified every time I post a new chapter(especially since next week will be different!) See you Monday! ~ xo Queenie


	14. Say Yes to the Dress

The next morning Hermione and Hollis rose bright and early to meet Nora outside of the dining hall and beat the crowds to Hogsmeade. The girls bundled up in their warmest winter gear, while the walk may not be long to reach the village near Hogwarts the howling wind outside their windows didn’t give them much hope for slow, comfortable pace to be set. Hollis found herself adding on two extra layers, three more than she would have normally worn in this weather, the girl had run naturally hot for her whole life, but now that she no longer could transform it seemed that her inner fire had been made to rest dormant.

Nora greeted Hollis with a massive hug and attempted to do the same for Hermione but the brunette had side stepped and avoided the affection.

“Morning!” Nora greeted. “You two ready?”

“We’re ready!” Hollis agreed.

“Thanks for letting me come along on such short notice.” Hermione said as the three girls headed out of the school following the path down to the village where Lucy Walsh would be waiting for them.

“No problem at all!” Nora assured the girl. “The more the merrier.”

“I’m just glad you got my message in time.” Hollis added on. She had run to the Slytherin common room far past curfew to make sure the offer she had given Hermione was actually a good one.

“Well, when one bangs on a common room door during the early hours of the morning the whole house was sure to hear your message.”

“You broke curfew?” Hermione asked, eyes wide and concerned.

“She breaks curfew like once a week.” Nora told the other girl with a laugh, “to see me of course.” She added with a flip of her hair. Hollis laughed but Hermione didn’t.

“Lighten up, Mione.” Hollis teased. “I’ve never been caught.”

“That’s not true.” Nora stage-whispered to the Gryffindor. “She got caught in first year because she thought Snape’s chambers were the entrance—”

“That’s enough of that story, Nora!” Hollis tried to cut off her cousin but the story had caught Hermione’s interest, the brunette insisted that Nora finish.

“It was hilarious. She kept knocking on the door to his office and he appeared in all his scary glory like a bat, and she got detention for like 3 weeks. You should have seen the look on her face when Snape opened the door—”

“You weren’t even there Nora; how would you know what my face looked like?”

“Don’t worry about the details, Hol, it’s a hilarious story.”

“You’re ridiculous.” Hollis said lovingly, hip checking her cousin into one of the many snowbanks piled beside the path. Hermione laughed but then tried to hide it, not wanting to offend the Slytherin, Nora burst out laughing and the Gryffindor girls soon followed suit. Nora picked herself out of the snow, her Slytherin green cap was askew on her head and her coat was covered in snow.

“If Lucy wasn’t waiting for us, I would kill you right now.” Nora hissed at her cousin, pushing her lightly and laughing. “Plus, I wouldn’t want to take Hermione down with me as an accomplice.”

“I would hope Hermione would protect me.” Hollis laughed. “Not watch my murder.”

“You could fight your way out.” Hermione said with a huge grin on her face. “You’d _probably_ be fine.”

“Wow, really feeling the love right now you guys.”

The trio of girls laughed their way down to Hogsmeade, the walk not taking them long as they enjoyed each other’s company. When they reached the village, they carefully made their way down the icy path to Honeydukes where a certain older sister was waiting for them.

“Lucy!” Hollis screamed the second she saw her sister; she left her cousin and friends behind racing towards her sister who started running when she caught sight of her. The two sisters crashed into each other; Hollis’ hug lifted Lucy off of her feet. “I missed you.”

“You’re terrible at writing.”

“Like you’re any better.”

“Hi, Lucy.” Nora greeted as her and Hermione joined them.

“Hey, honey.” Lucy gave Nora a massive hug. “How’s school?”

“Meh.”

“Sounds about right to me.” Lucy smiled and turned to Hermione. “You must be Hermione.”

“Um… yeah… that’s me.” Hermione was obviously starting to retreat into her shell, shy around the new woman.

“So happy that you’re coming with us.” Lucy went to give the third girl a hug which caught Hermione off guard but she couldn’t help but return. Lucy’s hugs had a certain kind of magic to them that no professor could explain. “Hollis may be horrible at writing, but she’s already told me so much about you.”

“She has?” Hermione looked to Hollis who was blushing, feeling shy now that Lucy had exposed that fact about her.

“Of course.” Hollis said, blushing (though she would have blamed it on the cold). “You’re my friend.” That made Hermione smile gratefully. Lucy grinned at the three of them.

“There’s been a small change of plans.” Lucy told the three girls; she began walking, leading them down the main Hogsmeade road.

“What?” Hollis asked, Lucy hadn’t thought to tell her about it in the note she sent back this morning saying Hermione was welcome to join them.

“Madame Malkin’s is closed apparently the pipes burst a couple days ago so they’re closed for repairs and we all know that the Fanny Fantastical Fashion hates me so we’re going to have to floo.”

“Floo? Floo where?” Hollis asked, exchanging a nervous look with her friends.

“A friend of mine from school works in a shop in York and she booked the two of you an appointment.”

“Y-york?” Hermione stuttered. “McGonagall’s going to kill us.”

“McGonagall’s a big softie.” Lucy said, dismissing Hermione’s worry. “She won’t care, plus you have an adult with you.”

“We do?” Nora asked. “Where are they?”

“Me,” Lucy replied missing the joke. “It’ll be great, it’s just too far for me to apparate to 12 times in one day.”

“If you say so,” Hollis said, ignoring Hermione who was staring worried filled bullets into the side of her head.

———

The four girls were able to floo to the dress shop with no issues (though Hermione seemed rather worried that one of them would misspeak and end up in Peru) and were quickly ushered into a waiting room by a bored girl with black hair that looked as though it had randomly been bleached in sections and left alone in others. They sat for only a short time when the same girl entered and offered them some refreshments which Lucy happily accepted but the younger three girls politely declined. The shop from what they could see was very pretty, the walls were painted a pastel blue and lined with paintings of landscapes that moved full of animals and wind.

After what felt like ages, but was truly only ten minutes, a new girl appeared she was much shorter than the last and strikingly beautiful. She wore her hair in miniscule pastel purple braids that ran down to her waist that made her dark complexion seem to glow. Her dress matched the girl who had assisted them before, obviously a work uniform, but it looked as though it had been made with her in mind.

“Lucy!”

“Dayra!” Lucy hopped out of her seat and grab the other woman in a bone crushing hug. “It’s been far too long.”

“And whose fault is that?” The woman, Dayra, asked with a laugh. “You never visit.”

“You never have your floo open.”

“Well, when you have exes like mine.” Dayra laughed, and Lucy joined in. The three fourth years exchanged a look as they watched the exchange. “You must be Hollis.” Dayra said looking to Hermione who blushed and shook her head.

“I-I’m Hermione, that’s Hollis.”

“Silly me. Lucy why didn’t you tell me you were bringing an extra girl, now I look silly.” Lucy just shrugged.

“You remember what making plans in fourth year looked like.” 

“Boy do I ever.” Dayra looked towards all three, and pointed to each of them making sure she knew each of their names before she continued. “Now, the shop is fairly simple, find a dress silhouette you like and I’ll help you transfigure it from there. We charm them to fit you for life, but the colour is set in stone once you choose it. I already have a few ideas for the two of you but let’s see what your natural tastes are before I start pulling things out for you to try.”

Hollis and Nora nodded a little wide eyed, they had expected Lucy to take them to an off the rack shop, not something this fancy. Caught off guard it took the two of them a moment before Dayra started conjuring illusions of models in their latest styles to stand in front of the girls. Meanwhile, Hermione watched wide eyed at the new use of magic, it was a foreign idea to her, sure she knew that witch fashion existed but the idea of combing magic and fabric was one that she had never had on her own. Soon, the three girls were caught up in it all, dismissing dresses that they weren’t fans of and slowly collecting a stockpile of ones they did.

Dayra clapped her hands together and dismissed the model illusions.

“Now comes the fun part.” She said with a grin, withdrawing her wand she instructed Nora to stand up first and step onto a small platform that she charmed to raise from the floor. With a flick of her wand a curtain came up around Nora and when it fell her clothes had been replaced by a slip dress in a light nude colour. Nora looked a little uncomfortable just standing there until Dayra started asking her questions about her favorite dresses. As Nora answered them Dayra closed her eyes and began to weave her wand through the air the tip glowed a light blue color as she did.

“Okay, ladies, here comes the fun part.” Dayra flicked her wand towards Nora, a fine streak of light blue magic left the wand and curled around the dress transfiguring and transforming it anywhere it touched. When the magic dissipated the slip, Nora had been wearing was transformed into a beautiful long sleeve ball gown, it had a full skirt and seemed to glimmer in the light as it moved alongside Nora.

“You look amazing, Nora.” Hermione gasped as the girls took it in.

“Now, colours,” Dayra flicked her wand and summoned a small poster to her which she held out to Nora. “I’m guessing you’re in the winter family of skin tones so these colours are what’s going to look best on you. Any calling you?”

Hollis and Hermione watched transfixed as Darya and Nora worked together to transfigure the dress into something that a princess would wear. When it was all done, Nora was left standing in an off the shoulder baby blue ball gown that made her look angelic. The magic wasn’t done there, it was Hollis’ turn next. With her stomach full of butterflies, she stepped onto the platform and let Dayra begin to work her magic. Honestly, Hollis thought the starting slip was pretty on its own but Lucy rolled her eyes when she had said that and forced her little sister to let Dayra take the wheel. Dayra was done Hollis dress far quicker than Nora’s which Hollis felt grateful for. Even though she was only standing up in front of four people Hollis felt her skin crawl as their eyes looked over her.

She did one final spin on the platform to show off the dress. She had to admit that she thought it was gorgeous. Dayra had transfigured it to be strapless with a sweetheart neckline that Hollis thought looked incredibly flattering to her flat chest. Hermione had actually been the one to suggest the faint peach color and Nora had supplied the idea of adding one of the pearl belts Dayra showed them to give the illusion of an empire waist. Hollis happily got back into her jeans and t-shirt and handed the dress to Dayra who packed it up for the journey back to Hogsmeade.

While Dayra was packing up Lucy started talking to them about ideas for their hair and Hermione mentioned wanting to straighten her curls out. Lucy was put off by the idea until Hermione explained that she wanted to look elegant in front of the three assembled schools. Lucy instantly knew what Hermione meant and helped to her pick out the right products to style her hair, instead of using a straightening spell Hollis’ older sister convinced her to use a Sleekeasy potion to reduce the frizz of her curls without using magic to strip them down and harm them. Lucy carefully detailed to both Hermione and Nora what they would need to do the next day and showing them pictures in the magazines available of what she was picturing in her mind.

The four of them flooed back into Hogsmeade with plenty of day left to spare. At first Lucy seemed ready to leave right away, but she was quickly corralled into exploring some of the shops further from the village center that less student visited. It was in one of them that Hollis found a novelty hair pin that shocked anyone that tried to remove it from its wearer; Lucy found it quite funny and forced her sister to allow her to buy it as a Christmas present for her. With hearts full from a day of laughter and excitement the three younger girls left Lucy outside the Three Broomsticks. Behind them trailed promises to send Lucy pictures (courtesy of the camera Nora’s mother had lent them) and a promise that they wouldn’t tease any of the boys excessively the next day.

“Good day, Hermione?” Nora asked, as Hollis and Hermione waited for her to enter the Slytherin common room.

“It was splendid.” Hermione gushed; cheeks still flushed from the cold. “Thanks for having me.”

“Of course.” Nora gave her a quick hug, which caught Hermione off-guard. “See you lot tomorrow.” Nora quickly hugged her cousin, and made sure she had all her bags before muttering the password. The Slytherin door flung open and Nora entered, the buzz of the common room escaped out of it. Hollis caught of a glimpse of Goyle and made sure to flash him a finger that would have made her mom send her to her room.

“Hollis!” Hermione protested, though she was holding back her giggles as she dragged Hollis in the direction of the Gryffindor common room.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so.... i'm back. 
> 
> I didn't really expect to take a break over the holidays, but it was much needed, and let me tell you the chapters that are coming up and the outlines I have for 5th and 6th year(and maybe 7th) are *chef's kiss*
> 
> ANYWAYS, I will be tentatively back to my regular schedule(posting every Monday +/- a day or two) but make sure you bookmark or subscribe to get email notifications about when new chapters come out! Let me know what you're thinking or hoping in the comments(I love to hear from you)
> 
> Make sure to drink lots of water and take care of yourself in this crazy world  
> ~ xo Queenie


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